Singharaja rain forest reserve of Sri Lanka, situated 120 km South-East of Colombo is considered a living heritage as it is the countries last, major, undistributed rain forest. Situated in the heart of the islands wet zone on most days the forest collects copious amounts of rain water to replenish its deep, rich soil and balance water resources for much of South-Western Sri Lanka. Recognizing its vitality to the islands ecosystem, UNESCO declared the reserve a World Heritage site in 1989. The reserves name translates as 'The Kingdom of the Lion'.
The damp, mysterious interiors of the forest, teeming with life is home to a astounding array of flora and fauna placing it among the top biodiversity hot spots in the world. More than 60% of the trees and plant life are endemic and may of them are very rare. And there is much endemic wild life specially birds, but the reserve is also home to over 50% endemic species of mammals,butterflies many kinds of insects, reptiles and rare amphibians only found here.
Singharaja has the typical layering of a rain forest- canopy, sub-canopy, under story and ground flora.
Around 340 hard wooden tree species are found, with around 140 of them being endemic. There are a great variety of orchids, ferns, vines and rare herbs. About 75% of the plants are considered as endemic.
The diversity of animals in Singharaja is as great as that of plants. Its home to 45 mammals and 11 of them being endemic. Fishing cat, wild boar, giant squirrel, mongoose, purple- faced leaf monkey and the leopard and elephant are also seen very rarely.
Out of the 38 amphibians reported in Singharaja about 31 are endemic and among the 75 species of reptile found in Singharaja about 35 are endemic. These include the green pit viper and humped nose viper.
Finally, out of the plethora of butterflies, consisting of about 100 species 9 are endemic. A few of these endemic species include the Sri Lanka Tree Nymph, Sri Lanka Common Bird wing, Sri Lanka blue mormon and Sri Lanka Red Helen
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