More of Sri Lanka’s national parks could be temporarily closed if the prevailing heatwave and prolonged dry conditions intensify, the Daily Mirror reported, as wildlife authorities struggle to protect animals from increasingly harsh weather.
The warning follows the Department of Wildlife Conservation’s decision to close Blocks 1 and 2 of Yala National Park from 14 September to 15 October, while keeping Blocks 3, 4, 5 and 6 open.
A senior Wildlife Department official said authorities were monitoring the weather closely and could consider temporarily closing additional parks if temperatures keep rising, particularly under an El Niño-related pattern.
“Although we cannot control the prevailing temperatures, we can provide water and other essential facilities to help wildlife cope with the conditions,” the official said.
The heat and dry conditions were creating increasingly difficult conditions for animals, the official said, particularly where water sources were drying up. Any decision to close further parks would rest on prevailing weather and the need to protect wildlife and their habitats.
This answers a question our report on the Yala closure left open — whether any other park faced closure for the same reason. The answer is that none has been closed yet, but the department is not ruling it out.
What is at stake commercially
The possible expansion comes as wildlife tourism generates billions of rupees a year. Between January and June 2026, national parks and other wildlife attractions recorded 1,381,079 visitors and Rs. 4,279,609,307 in revenue.
Of those visitors, 759,411 were local and 621,668 foreign — 615,022 from outside the SAARC region and 6,646 from SAARC countries.
Yala was both the busiest park and the biggest earner, with more than 459,000 arrivals and roughly Rs. 2.10 billion in the six months — close to half of all wildlife tourism revenue. Udawalawe followed with 219,465 visitors and about Rs. 927.5 million, then Horton Plains with 196,651 visitors and about Rs. 264.3 million, and the Elephant Transit Home with 123,273. Minneriya generated around Rs. 297.9 million and Mirissa about Rs. 233.4 million.
Foreign visitor fees accounted for the largest share of revenue at roughly Rs. 4.06 billion, against about Rs. 94.5 million from local fees and Rs. 27.5 million from SAARC visitors. Vehicle and boat charges added a further Rs. 86.9 million.
In June alone Yala recorded 56,165 visitors — 26,378 local and 29,681 foreign — with foreign visitors generating about Rs. 305.27 million.
Closing Blocks 1 and 2 therefore removes the single largest revenue line in the system for a month at the department’s own initiative.
The wider dry spell
Sri Lanka has 23 national parks, many of them in dry-zone areas particularly vulnerable to prolonged dry weather and high temperatures. The closure sits inside the country’s worst dry spell in years: the Meteorology Department has put the probability of a strong El Niño at 98 per cent within three months and described the developing event as potentially the strongest in 75 years.
The department has been trucking bowser water into parks to keep waterholes supplied. In Moneragala, 487 of roughly 800 district tanks have dried up, with several major reservoirs below 30 per cent of capacity.
Not reported
The Daily Mirror does not name the official, or say which parks are under consideration for closure, what temperature or rainfall threshold would trigger a decision, or when such a decision would be taken. It does not say what the Yala closure costs the department in forgone entrance revenue, whether bookings already made for the period are being refunded or transferred, or how many animals have been treated or rescued this dry season.
No other verified newsroom had filed on the possibility of further closures at the time of writing. Ada Derana carried the original Yala closure announcement and, according to a search summary, referred to officials monitoring conditions in other arid areas including Mannar and the vicinity of Wilpattu — but its site has returned a CloudFront block to every fetch attempt for several weeks, so it could not be verified or cited here.
