Once the capital of the ancient Sinhalese kingdom of Ruhuna, Tissamaharama is a major town in the south-east of Sri Lanka which acts as the main portal for Yala National Park. On the edge of the town is the large Tissa tank -a manmade wetland full of wildlife.

Yala National Park is a large dry-zone reserve of 979 km2 (of which only 141 km2 are open to public access) famed for its populations of large game including Asian Elephants, Wild Boar, Sambar & Spotted Deer, Water Buffalo, Sloth Bear and of course Leopards. Indeed Yala is the best place in the whole of Asia to see Leopard which, in the absence of Lion or Tiger is the top cat!
We visited Yala towards the end of an unusually hot and arid dry season when much of the wildlife was concentrated around the remaining shrinking waterholes. In some areas the grass had all but gone and whilst the elephants and deer can survive on tough browse whilst wild pigs dig up tubers the Water Buffalo were hit very hard and some were close to starvation.