Pallekandal Church Festival
The re-opening of the Wilpattu National Park after the war presented a new problem for Sri Lanka’s forests – the rapid expansion of an existing jungle shrine in the Pallekandal/ Pomparippu area inside the national park. Long since venerated by Catholics, this church was starting to build new permanent structures, celebrate large-scale festivities and draw more human intrusion into the park leading to further unregulated activities causing a threat to the wildlife. Since its intervention in January 2019, to seek ways to mitigate these issues, WNPS has been continuously pursuing this challenging endeavour in court.
