Two nights to remember at Wilpattu National Park-by Lal Anthonis Source:Island It was December 1983 when my friend Lakshman Siriwardhana, known as Lucky, and I arrived at the Talawila lodge in Wilpattu National Park just past noon and found the Park Warden, his deputy and a few other officers having lunch on the verandah of the lodge. A chat with them revealed that they were returning after investigating an attack by a leopard on a boy along the Marichchkaddi-Puttalam road. The boy had been admitted to Puttalam hospital with injuries to his throat. He succumbed to his injuries the next day. Marichchakaddi is a Moslem village where one of the main livelihoods is cattle breeding. Every now and then, one or two of the village lads used to herd a group of buffaloes to be sold in Puttalam. They took an old jungle road that goes through Wilpattu National Park ...

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