Yala National Park is the most popular national park of Sri Lanka. It is also known as Ruhuna National Park, it is situated in the southeast of Sri Lanka, in the districts of Hambantota in the southern province and Monaragala in the Uva province. The park's entrance is located near Palatupana, 12 kilometers from Kirinda. Colombo and Palatupana's entry points are separated by a distance of 305 kilometers.

Tissamaharama serves as the park's entrance. The guests must travel 20 kilometers via Kirinda to reach Palatupana. Visitors to Palatupana can get information from the well-designed visitor center, which also gives all approaching vehicles a tracker.

The park's rocky outcrops offer observation spots to take in the enormous expanses of Sri Lanka's dry zone landscape, including low scrub and woodlands. Additionally, because the park's southern boundary is the south-eastern coast, the brackish lagoons and dunes add to the park's unique attractiveness.

Yala National Park offers the best chance of all Sri Lanka's National Parks to see the country's diverse array of wildlife: colorfully painted storks are seen in groups perched at the lagoon's edge, where crocodiles have also chosen to take a nap; lovely fan-tailed peacocks in their resplendent blues and greens parade through the woods where monkeys hang, leap, and chatter; in the bush jungle are the elephants crossing the tracks and relishing the green leaves & trees.

There are 32 different species of mammals known to exist. Sloth bears (Melursus ursinus), leopards (Panthera pardus kotiya), elephants (Elephas maximus), water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), wild boars (Sus scrofa), spotted deer (Axis axis ceylonessis), sambars (Cervus unicolor), and golden jackals are some of the species that are in danger (Canis aureus).

The leopards in Sri Lanka (Panthera Pardus Kotiya) are separate subspecies from those in India. Although leopards can be seen all around the park, the ideal time to watch them is from January to July.

Elephant populations vary seasonally and are rather large in Yala. The ideal time to watch elephants is from May through August during the dry season.

Yala National Park is home to 130 different species of birds, making it a bird lover's paradise. Raptors include white-bellied sea eagles and crested serpent eagles. Lesser Flamingo, Pelican, Spoonbill, painted stork, uncommon black-necked stork, grey heron, purple heron, night heron, and darter are a few of the water birds drawn to the lagoons.

Thousands of migratory waterfowl, including Pintail, Garganey, Eurasian Curlew, Whimbrel, and turnstone, visit the lagoons during the north-east monsoon and mix with local species including whistling duck, Yellow Wattled Lapwing, Red Wattled Lapwing, and Great Stone Plover.

Barbets, Orioles, Hornbills, Asian Paradise Flycatchers, Orange Breasted Green Pigeons, and Flycatchers can all be found in the woodland.

Yala National Park is situated 176 kilometers from Sri Lanka's capital city of Colombo's Bandaranaike International Airport. It's not tough to drive down to Yala thanks to Sri Lanka's fantastic and well-maintained road network.