Batticaloa City

Batticaloa: Coastal city in Sri Lanka's Eastern Province, known for its scenic lagoon, sandy beaches, historic landmarks, and rich cultural heritage.

Things to do in Batticaloa

Batticaloa lagoon

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This article is about the lagoon in Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. For other uses, see Batticaloa (disambiguation).

Batticaloa Lagoon is a very large estuarine lagoon in Batticaloa District, eastern Sri Lanka. The city of Batticaloa is located on land between the lagoon and the Indian Ocean.Batticaloa district is flourished with three lagoons, such Batticaloa lagoon, Valaichchenai Lagoon and Vakari Lagoon. Among them, Batticaloa lagoon is the largest lagoon in Batticaloa District. Batticaloa lagoon is a long and narrow lagoon situated in the east coast of Sri Lanka with the total area of approximately 11,500 ha of water.

The lagoon is 56 km long. This lagoon extends from Eravur (Batticaloa district) in the north to Kalmunai (Ampara district) in the south. This lagoon opens into the sea at two points. One in the southern end of the lagoon at Kallar and the other is midway of the lagoon at Palameenmadu which is close to the Batticaloa town.Both are narrow and approximately 200 m wide. The width of the water flow at their openings varies with the seasons. During the dry season the width of the bar mouth of the lagoon decreases and gradually it get closed with the onset of the north east monsoon which piles up the sand bar by the end of dry season. Later with the rains and with the lagoon mouth closed.

The lagoon is fed by a number of small rivers. It is linked to the sea by a two narrow channels, one at Batticaloa and the other at Periyakallar. During the dry season these channels are blocked by sand bars.

The lagoon is surrounded by a densely populated region used for cultivating rice, coconut and other crops. The surrounding land is used for shrimp farming and rice cultivation.

The lagoon has extensive mangrove swamps and some sea grass beds. The lagoon attracts a wide variety of water birds.

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About Batticaloa District

Batticaloa is a city in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. Batticaloa is in the eastern coast of Sri Lanka on a flat coastal plain boarded by the Indian Ocean in the east occupies the central part of the eastern Sri Lanka. Batticaloa is on the East coast, 314 km from Colombo. The population of 515,707 consists mainly of Tamils, Moors, Sinhalese, Euro-Asian Burghers (specifically Portuguese Burghers and Dutch Burghers) and indigenous Vedda population.

Rice and coconuts are the two staples of the district, and steamers trading round the island call regularly at the port. The lagoon is famous for its ""singing fish,"" supposed to be shell-fish which give forth musical notes. The district has a remnant of Veddahs or wild men of the wood.

The city has four main divisions.

Pullianthivu: Seat of many government department and offices, schools, banks religious places, General Hospital, Weber Stadium and Shops. Nowadays many NGO offices including ICRC, UN, UNICEF, WORLD VISION etc.are located also.

Koddamunai: Schools, Banks, Sri Lanka Telecom regional office for East, Shops and many government offices are located. Two bridges called Perya Palam and Puthuppalam are connect Pulianthivu Island with Koddaminai land mass.

Kallady: Here there are many Government buildings and private industries, schools, hospitals and Eastern University Medical Faculty. Kallady Lady Manning Bridge (the longest bridge in Sri Lanka) connects Kallady and Arasay.

Puthur: This is where the dom

About Eastern Province

The Eastern Province is one of the 9 provinces of Sri Lanka. The provinces have existed since the 19th century but they didn't have any legal status until 1987 when the 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka established provincial councils. Between 1988 and 2006 the province was temporarily merged with the Northern Province to form the North-East Province. The capital of the province is Trincomalee. The Eastern province's population was 1,460,939 in 2007. The province is the most diverse in Sri Lanka, both ethnically and religiously.

Eastern province has an area of 9,996 square kilometers (3,859.5 sq mi).The province is surrounded by the Northern Province to the north, the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Southern Province to the south, and the Uva, Central and North Central provinces to the west. The province's coast is dominated by lagoons, the largest being Batticaloa lagoon, Kokkilai lagoon, Upaar Lagoon and Ullackalie Lagoon.