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Sri Lanka Sri Lanka forest

Sinharaja Forest Reserve

Dan Lundberg · CC BY-SA 2.0

96% trees around it and 23 species recorded.

  • trees within 3 km96%
  • wild within 10 km99%
  • species recorded23

The forest around

96% trees.

Read like the rings of a cut trunk: from the centre out, the land within 1, 3, 6 and 10 km, coloured by what covers it.

Trees 97%Grassland 0%Water 0%Cropland 1%Built-up 0%Trees 96%Grassland 2%Water 0%Cropland 2%Built-up 0%Trees 97%Grassland 1%Cropland 2%Trees 98%Grassland 1%Cropland 1%96%trees · 3 km

Trees, ring by ring

  • 0–1 km97%
  • 1–3 km96%
  • 3–6 km97%
  • 6–10 km98%

What covers the land (1–3 km)

  • Trees96%
  • Grassland2%
  • Water0%
  • Cropland2%
  • Built-up0%

ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m, from Sentinel satellites), sampled every 120 m. A clearing, a road or a lake counts as what it is.

Who lives here

23 species recorded.

The plants, fungi, birds and mammals people have recorded here most often.

Water yam
Water yamDioscorea alata2 recordsForest & Kim Starr · CC BY 3.0
Lesser yam
Lesser yamDioscorea esculenta2 recordsH. Zell · CC BY-SA 3.0

Open records within 5 km (GBIF, licensed for any use). Busy places are better recorded than remote ones.

In numbers

The forest, measured.

79out of 100

Our own rating, from open data only: tree cover (40 points), wildness (20), species recorded (30) and protection or heritage (10).

  • 96%Treesof the land within 3 km
  • 99%Wildno towns or farmland within 10 km
  • 23Speciesrecorded more than once within 5 km

When to walk

Best for walking from January to February and in July.

How good each month is for a walk: mild days and little rain make the bar taller.

  1. Jan28°25°95 mm
  2. Feb28°26°85 mm
  3. Mar29°27°124 mm
  4. Apr29°27°221 mm
  5. May29°28°243 mm
  6. Jun28°27°146 mm
  7. Jul28°27°116 mm
  8. Aug28°26°139 mm
  9. Sep28°27°189 mm
  10. Oct28°26°280 mm
  11. Nov28°26°334 mm
  12. Dec28°26°202 mm
  • Bar: walking comfort; the number on top is the average maximum.
  • Below: average minimum (NASA, 1991–2020).
  • Rain: monthly total.

The place

Sinharaja Forest Reserve.

Protected area in Sri Lanka

Sinharaja Forest Reserve is a forest in Sri Lanka.

Seen from space, 96% of the land within 3 km is trees, and 99% of the land within 10 km has no towns or farmland.

23 species have been recorded around it: 2 plants, 0 fungi, 21 birds and 0 mammals.

The best time to walk is from January to February and in July.

20160128 Sri Lanka 4132 Sinharaja Forest Preserve sRGB (25674474901)
Dan Lundberg · CC BY-SA 2.0

Get there and walk

Plan the visit

A guided walk, a bed nearby, a car.

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The forest and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the place, with the trails, notable trees, picnic sites and huts that OpenStreetMap shows.

Sinharaja Forest Reserve seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

  • 2places to stay within 10 kmThilini Home Stay, Nimali gest
  • 1restaurants and cafés within 3 km
  • marked trails within 5 km
  • named and notable trees within 6 km
  • picnic sites within 4 km
  • shelters and huts within 6 km
  • viewpoints within 5 km
  • visitor centres within 6 km
  • car parks within 3 km
  • campsites within 10 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

In our other atlases

Around Sinharaja Forest Reserve.

The mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and canyons around this forest, the viewpoints above it, the birds and the night sky, in the family's atlases.

Peakyas60 mountains within 25 km
Hinidumakanda661 m · 10 kmBussahenakanda18 kmKurundakanda18 kmDuragekanda19 kmMadewulakanda20 kmResidency Hill23 kmKunduppukanda24 kmRumasala Kanda25 km
Cavernyas1 caves within 20 km
Andirilena Cave6.6 km

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.

Photographs

The forest, as people saw it.

Sinharaja Forest trail 2
Saqib Qayyum · CC BY-SA 3.0
Sinharaja Forest trail
Saqib Qayyum · CC BY-SA 3.0
Sinharaja elephants 2
Javith Dulnita · CC0

Other forests nearby.

Sinharaja Forest Reserve

Sri Lanka

  • 79Forestyas Score
  • 96%Trees
  • 99%Wild
  • 23Species

Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya

Sri Lanka · 120 km

  • 85Forestyas Score
  • 88%Trees
  • 94%Wild
  • 295Species

See the guide

Galkadawela

Sri Lanka · 120 km

  • 78Forestyas Score
  • 89%Trees
  • 98%Wild
  • 80Species

See the guide

Sri Maha Bodhi

Sri Lanka · 234 km

  • 60Forestyas Score
  • 55%Trees
  • 82%Wild
  • 143Species

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name and typeWikidata (Q375634) · CC0
Land coverESA WorldCover 10 m 2021 v200 · © ESA WorldCover project / Copernicus Sentinel data · CC BY 4.0
Species97 open records within 5 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only)
See these recordsgbif.org
Names and photosWikidata (CC0); GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
AltitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Temperature and rainNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Sister atlasesPeakyas, Islandyas, Cavernyas, Riveryas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.