The Galoya National Park came into being in 1954 and was administered by the Galoya Development Board until 11 years later The Department of Wildlife Conservation took over. The park covers an area of 198 square miles in the dry zone southeast of the island of Sri Lanka. It was established for the purpose of protecting the catchment area which came to be known as the Senanayake Samudra. This, the largest reservoir in the country was named after Don Stephen Senanayake, Sri Lanka’s (then Ceylon) first Prime Minister and Minister of External Affairs.
It was his idea for the construction of a dam to be built at Inginiyagala that eventually resulted in the flooding of the Galoya Valley and the creation of a body of water with a surface area of 7680 ha.
The building of the dam was undertaken by the American construction company, Morrison-Knudsen and was a multi-purpose project similar to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
The reservoir is as deep as 100 feet in some places and has several small islands which are the tops of the hills that were once a part of the landscape of the Galoya Valley before it was inundated. In shallower spots the trunks and branches of dead trees rise from the surface to provide perches for several species of waterbirds.
The park is a sanctuary for many species of animals including elephant, leopard, buffalo, bear and crocodile.
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