By Serendip Unfolded · 3 Nov 2026. General planning notes; confirm details for your own dates when you request a quote.
Yala is Sri Lanka's best-known national park, yet many visitors know little about it beyond the leopards. This reference article sets out the main facts: where it is, how big it is, how it grew, what lives there and how it is managed. We name our sources at the end, and we flag figures that are old or disputed.
At a glance
- Location: south-eastern Sri Lanka, across the Southern, Uva and Eastern provinces. The nearest town is Kataragama.
- Area: about 979 km² (978.8 km²).
- Reserve declared: 23 March 1900, with an initial area of 389 km².
- National park status: 1 March 1938.
- Managed by: the Department of Wildlife Conservation.
- Distance from Colombo: about 270 km by the shortest road, via Ratnapura and Tissamaharama.
How the park grew
Yala began as a protected reserve in 1900 under the Forest Ordinance, and it became a national park in 1938. It grew in stages as more land was added. The Sri Lanka Wetlands Information and Database lists five blocks: Block I (14,101 ha, added 1938), Block II (9,931 ha, 1954), Block III (40,775 ha, 1967), Block IV (26,418 ha, 1969) and Block V (6,656 ha, 1973). Together they total 97,881 hectares, which matches the park's overall area.
Not every block is open to visitors, and the open areas can change. Sources disagree on which blocks are currently open, so check with your operator and the Department of Wildlife Conservation before you travel. The park is also known to close for part of the dry season, as in September and October 2019.
Landscape and climate
Yala sits in the dry zone. Mean annual rainfall is about 500 to 775 mm, and most of it falls during the north-east monsoon. Average temperatures range from about 26 °C in January to about 30 °C in April. The park brings together dry forest, scrub, rocky outcrops, lagoons and a coastline on the Indian Ocean. Water holes become important as the dry season advances, which is why animals gather around them.
Leopards
Yala is famous for its leopards. The Sri Lankan leopard is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN. A study of Block I in 2001 to 2002 estimated about 12 resident adults per 100 km², or about 22 leopards of all ages per 100 km². That is a high density, and one cited study calls it one of the highest in the world, but it is only one block at one time. An often-repeated figure of about 25 leopards in Block I comes from 1982, so it is more than 40 years old and should not be treated as current.
Leopards live alone, except for females with young, and they are mostly active at night, although they are also seen at dawn, dusk and sometimes in daylight. In the dry zone, they feed mainly on axis deer.
Other wildlife and birds
Researchers list 44 resident mammals, including the Sri Lankan elephant, sloth bear, wild water buffalo, toque macaque, golden palm civet and fishing cat. The park is also an Important Bird Area, with about 215 bird species. Birdlife sources count the endemic species slightly differently, so we do not quote an exact endemic number.
Visitors and pressure
Yala is the highest-earning park in the country. A 2026 report cited more than 380,000 visitors in the first half of 2025. The same report described a licensing programme for jeeps that began in January 2024, with 552 registered jeeps. It also reported that the government aims to limit entries to about 250 to 300 jeeps, and that GPS tracking is planned. Overcrowding and speeding are widely discussed problems, so conservation advocates call for stronger enforcement.
How reliable are these facts?
Most figures here come from Wikipedia, which cites academic studies, government sources and news reports. Some are old, and a few are inconsistent between pages, so we have shown where they are. Leopard density, for example, varies by study, by year and by block. Treat the numbers as a guide to scale, not as a forecast of what you will see.
What this means for your visit
If you take one idea from these facts, let it be scale. Yala is large and varied, but a safari covers only a small part of it. That is why a patient guide, a sensible start time and a flexible attitude matter more than a famous name.
Yala is an impressive park, but its popularity affects the experience. The best visits come from realistic expectations, a patient driver, a respectful pace and an open mind about what counts as a good sighting. If you would like to see it, read about our Yala safari, or compare it with Wilpattu.
Sources
- Yala National Park, Wikipedia
- Sri Lankan leopard, Wikipedia
- Mongabay: In Sri Lanka, animals pay the price for overcrowding and speeding jeeps, 17 April 2026
- Sunday Times: Yala closed September 1 to October 31 (July 2019)
Cover photo: Adbar, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. All photo credits are on our photo credits page.