Central Highlands of Sri Lanka
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How it came to be
The Central Highlands of Sri Lanka comprise three areas in the south-central part of the island: the Peak Wilderness Protected Area, Horton Plains National Park and the Knuckles Conservation Forest. Their montane forests rise to about 2,500 m and hold more than half of Sri Lanka's endemic vertebrates and half of its endemic flowering plants. The Sri Lankan leopard lives here, as does the threatened Horton Plains slender loris.
In 1834 Lieutenant William Fisher and Lieutenant Albert Watson of the British army 'discovered' the Horton Plains plateau. It is named after Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton, governor of Ceylon from 1831 to 1837. In the 19th century the lower slopes were cleared for coffee and then tea plantations, but an order of 1873 banned clearing and felling of forest above 5,000 feet.
Peak Wilderness became a sanctuary on 25 October 1940, and Horton Plains became a wildlife sanctuary on 5 December 1969 and a national park in 1988. About two million pilgrims climb Adam's Peak in the Peak Wilderness every year, and the forest along the trails has suffered. Nominated as a mixed site, the highlands were recognised for their natural values only and inscribed in Brasília in July 2010, Sri Lanka's first new World Heritage site in 22 years, since the Sinharaja Forest Reserve in 1988.
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