Located on the banks of the Pusweli Oya, Padukka is a small town on the eastern outskirts of Colombo. It’s believed to have been founded as a military camp in the 16th century, and legend states that it was beneath the area’s ironwood trees that the Portuguese Army rested after their defeat by the Seethawaka Kingdom.
Sprawling east of Padukka is the Labugama - Kalatuwawa Forest Reserve, which protects two reservoirs used to supply Colombo’s water needs. Tropical rainforest blankets its hilly terrain and provides habitat for green-billed coucals and Ceylon trogons. On the edge of the reserve is the photogenic Udagama Waterfall.
Also nearby is the Seethawaka Wet Zone Botanic Gardens, which was originally established as a rubber and tea plantation. It now serves as a conservation area for threatened endemic plant species, as well as a research centre for the cultivation of bamboo and wet lowland species.
Getting there
Padukka is around an hour’s drive from the centre of Colombo and 1.5 hours from Bandaranaike International Airport, which has flights to destinations across the globe. Trains connect from the Sri Lankan capital to the Padukka railway station while both buses and rickshaws travel throughout the town.