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Sri Lanka Post Code Directory

It seems most of the Sri Lankans are not well aware and not using the Post-Code system effectively... So, get used to it and practice it when you send the next letter by post. You may be thinking we have our E-mails... but remember its only for some of us only... Majority of the Sri Lankans are not using email yet, but its catching up... 

Anyway we have the system So, why not use it...

The Sri Lanka Post has  introduced the Post-Code system which is a numerical identification of Post Offices by a Code consisting of five digits.

In Sri Lanka there are over 2,000 mail delivery offices spread around the country and some are in the remotest villages with almost similar names. The Post-Code system will help you, in addressing your letters correctly, legibly and thus have the benefit of overcoming language difficulties and spelling errors, thereby assisting the Postal authorities to sort your letters faster and deliver them accurately and expeditiously.

A Post-Code is also a pre-requisite for the mechanized sorting which the department proposes to introduce in the near future under its modernization programme.

All the Post Offices in the Island are assigned with this five digit Post- Code numbers of which the first digit indicates the Province and the other four digits indicate the office of destination. The customers are requested to insert this number under the office of destination at the end of the address on the envelopes.

1. The table of post-code contains

a) Post office: name of the post office,
   b) District code: district coded as in file dist-code,
   c) Post office/sub-post office: P=post office S=sub-post office
   d) Post code: 5 digit post code.

Out of the 1964 delivery post offices the codes of the post offices in the Nothern Province are not yet available (they are marked *).

2. The table of dist-code contains the codes used for the 25 districts.

3. Other excerpts from the Sri Lanka Post Code Directory

3.1 Post code for Colombo zones

Colombo 01 = 00100
      Colombo 02 = 00200
      Colombo 03 = 00300
      Colombo 04 = 00400
      Colombo 05 = 00500
      Colombo 06 = 00600
      Colombo 07 = 00700
      Colombo 08 = 00800
      Colombo 09 = 00900
      Colombo 10 = 01000
      Colombo 11 = 01100
      Colombo 12 = 01200
      Colombo 13 = 01300
      Colombo 14 = 01400
      Colombo 15 = 01500

3.2 Request

HELP YOUR POST OFFICE TO FACILITATE FASTER AND ACCURATE DELIVERY OF ALL YOUR MAIL MATTERS BY INCLUSION OF THE DELIVERY ...

---

SENDER ADDRESS
   NAME OF ADDRESSEE
   HOUSE NUMBER AND STREET NAME
   POST OFFICE AND POST-CODE

---

DistCode   District

   CO      Colombo            0??00 and 10...
   GQ      Gampaha            11...     ( 3 of 126 start with CO code 10???)   
   KT      Kalutara           12...

   KY      Kandy              20...
   MT      Matale             21...
   NW      Nuwaraeliya        22... (19 of  70 start with KY code 20???)  

   BC      Batticaloa         30...
   TC      Trincomalee        31...
   APR     Ampara             32...

   JA      Jaffna             40...
   MB      Mannar             41...
   MP      Mullaitivu         42...
   VA      Vavuniya           43...

   AD      Anuradhapura       50...
   PR      Polonnaruwa        51...

   KG      Kurunegala         60...
   PX      Puttalam           61...

   RN      Ratnapura          70...
   KE      Kegalle            71...

   GL      Galle              80...
   MH      Matara             81...
   HB      Hambantota         82...

   BD      Badulla            90...
   MJ      Monaragala         91... ( 4 of  58 start with RN code 70???)  

---

The rest of the numbers you can easily access via official Web portal of the Sri Lanka Post @

http://www.slpost.gov.lk/

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The story of Loolecondara starts like this...

My first visit to this magnificent place was in 2000. From that day onwards I have been there for several times... We conduct a research project there to see the effect of the cardamom plantation to the Natural forest in Loolecodera & Galaha forest reserves we did it so well where it ended up as an all island first place in research competition. We even had an all island Exploration hike here. So, let me tell you something about Loolecodera.


 
Loolecondara is in Delthota, Hewaheta, bordering the district line of Kandy and Nuwaraeliya. It's about 35 km from Peradeniya on the Galaha road. Loolecondara is well-known as the first ever tea estate established in Sri Lanka. In 1867 a Scottish cultivator, James Taylor, who is regarded as the founder of Sri Lankan Tea, was the first to plant tea in Loolecondara. Before that this area was used for coffee and cinchona plantations. There was a Museum build with the equipments and the remains from that era to commemorate the efforts of James Taylor to the Ceylon Tea. But now it's no more there the exhibits have moved to the Tea Museum at Hanthana Kandy. Still, you'll find several landmarks of James Taylor in the upper part of the tea estate. "Taylor seat" (a stone chair which he has used to admire the beauty of nature), "Log Cabin" (ruins of his bungalow), "Taylor's well" (well which he used to take water) are among them.


 
Another key feature in the estate is it possesses the longest Tea Factory in Sri Lanka with a length of 324 ft. The factory still produces fine upcountry tea leaves which having a good demand. Here they produces the "Sliver tips", the most rarest and most expensive of all teas produce by the country. This facility has several machineries which build by the British planters. A massive generator, installed in 1935 and even used today is among them, it's said that the parts were brought here by the elephant carts. So, this is all about the Tea legend of Loolecondera. Let me explain you the natural beauty and the rich biodiversity here.


 
Planting tea has done a huge damage to the natural environment of the hill country in Sri Lanka. Comparatively the damage done to the forest is low here in Loolecondara where James Taylor designed Tea estate in such a way that the effect on the environment was minimized. The virgin natural forest in top of the estate is evidence of his great work.


 

The special feature of this forest is the forest type which it belongs to and its rich biodiversity. It belongs to a unique forest type called "mid elevational lower montane forest", which is one of the thirteen different forest types that can be found in Sri Lanka. Forests of this type are seen only in Knuckles and Rakwana, except Loolecondara, which represent the three major mountain ranges in Sri Lanka. Elevation of this forest type is 900 – 1400 m from sea level and the temperature, rainfall and cloudiness of the forests vary with elevation.

Trees of family Dipterocarpacea
are dominant in some areas of the forest, specially the Doona species. Occurrence of this type of trees in the hill country is considered as unusual. Rhododendron arboretum Subsp. Zeylanicum a member of Family Ericaceae, an endemic flowering tree, which is a common site in Horton Planes also can be seen here. It is rare to see this tree in a relatively low altitude like in Loolecondara.

Some of the floral species you can see here is Rhododendron zeylanicum, Gordonia zeylanica,
Elacocarpus glandulifer, Cinnomomum litseafolium, Gaertnera walkeri, Psychotria zeylanica, Gordoniya ceylanica,

In the ground layer of the forest you'll be able to witness rare ground Orchid species, Anoectocchilus setaceus which is called in sinhala as "Wana raja" and Ipsea speciosa (Naga-meru-ala).

Not only the floral diversity, the faunal diversity in "Loolecondara" is prominent. Out of the five lizard species recorded here, three are endemic to Sri Lanka. Rhino-horn Lizarrd (Ceratophora stoddartii ) is an endemic lizard which has a high abundance in "Loolecondara" forest.

Many bird species have also been recorded in this forest including endemic species especially a rare bird Dusky-blue flycatcher (Eumyias sordida). "Loolecondara" is a heaven of amphibians and other small vertebrates. These are several amphibian species that have been recorded including Bufo melanostictus, Limnonectes limnocuaris, Limnonectes greenii, Limnonectes kirtisinghe, Limnonectes corvugatu, Rana temporalis.

The largest predator in Sri Lankan forests, Sri Lankan leopard (Panthara pardus kotiya) is also found here. There are other mammal species such as Fishing Cat (Felis viverrinus), Purple-faced leaf-monkey (Pithecus vetulus), Indian Hare (Lepus nigricollis sinhala), Wild Boar (Sus scrofacristatus), and Common Palm Civet (Paradoxyrus heramphroditus).

Today the growing importance of uplands as catchments for water conservation, biodiversity conservation and other downstream services has been recognized. "Loolecondara" as a unique upland plays a significant role in ecosystem integrity. Therefore, conservation together with proper awareness of this forest and its biodiversity should be highly considered.

 

Today on weekends and public holydays general public used to come here to enjoy & to see the breathtaking view of the mountain top. Most of them seem are unaware of the history, rich biodiversity off the place. It's noticeable that many try to pollute the place by dumping ploythenes, plastic bottles and garbage. Even some try to mark their names on the rocks and trees [some even do it by paints!! I can think of people, bringing paints on trips to write their names!!!]. Worse thing is some used to grab flowering plants and orchids on the trees & they try to take home, thinking they would have a nice garden at home!! These practices of the place should be stopped, currently the estate authority has some level of intervention on visitors, but it's not sufficient as their main priority is not visitors.

So, I anyone who reads and thinking of going there, Please do not pollute the place… try to be a responsible person. Finally I would quote the famous saying

Kill only time…

Take only pictures…

Remove only rubbish…

Leave only footprints….

 
Photographs by © Suranjith Bandara 2010


 

Loolecondera first tea land of the country cont...

I have posted a detailed post on Loolecondera in my other blog, Please do visit to read it 7 may be you could comment on it.

Loolecondera - The first Tea land of Sri Lanka

Loolecondera - The first Tea land of the country

Its being a long silence since my last post... Anyway I'm not that good in blogging ;)

I was thinking to share the memories of mighty Looloecondera with all of you... where once became my second home, we used to be there often and still has not being stopped [I was there last month as well!!]. Some of you may now the place, and others may be thinking where the hell is that???

Anyway its the First ever Tea land in our country started in 1867 by the Scottish planter James Taylor. A historical landmark of the country where the story of Ceylon Tea began. This place has some uniques features... both historical and ecological. Breath taking view of the Vally, Rich Biodiversity, Unique forest type [Mid elevational lower montane forest], ruins of the James Taylor's Bungalow, Taylor seat, Longest Tea factory in the Country with 324 ft long and original equipments and machineries of British planters are the key attractions of the place.

The rest of the story will come in a detailed post soon...