Endane Biodiversity Corridor – Reuniting forest, rekindling life

In the lush green heart of Sri Lanka’s wet zone, where the songs of cicadas mingle with the distant rush of waterfalls, a remarkable story of restoration is quietly unfolding. The Endane Biodiversity Corridor, a pioneering initiative by Dilmah Conservation, stands today as a symbol of ecological healing and visionary stewardship — a bridge reuniting fragments of rainforest once divided by human hands.

- By Irham Nizam

The corridor is home for possibly Sri Lanka's largest threatened rainforest plant nursery with more than 200 species Merril J. Fernando in 2018 took a groudbreaking step by initiating a rainforest corridor project

It began in 2018, when Merrill J. Fernando, the founder of Dilmah Ceylon Tea, took a bold and deeply symbolic step. On the Endane Tea Estate, he ordered the removal of tea bushes that had for over a century separated two rainforest patches. In their place, he envisioned a living corridor — where nature could once again breathe, move, and thrive freely.

Today, that vision flourishes. The Endane Biodiversity Corridor (EBC) reconnects the Iharakanda Proposed Forest Reserve and the Walankanda Forest Reserve, both integral to the Sinharaja Forest Range Landscape — one of the world’s richest and most delicate ecosystems. More than 40 hectares of tea monoculture are now being transformed into a rainforest alive with promise.