Kegalle District


Kegalle is a district in Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka. It is one of 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second level administrative division of the country. The district is administered by a District Secretariat headed by a District Secretary appointed by the central government of Sri Lanka. It was a former Dissavani of Sri Lanka.
It covers an area of. The district has a population of 837,179 according to 2012 Census, which is approximately 4.0% of the total population of Sri Lanka.

Physical information

The district transitions from the coastal plain in the west to the central highlands in the east. The height of the western region is above sea level while the eastern region exceeds. Rubber cultivation has stretched over most of the area of the District and minor export crops from the district include coffee, cocoa, pepper, clove and nutmeg. Sri Lanka's best graphite mine is situated at Bogala in Kegalle District.
The extent of the District is.

Major cities

Other towns

Demographics

Ethnic distribution

Most of the population are Sinhalese. Indian Tamils brought by the British as indentured labourers to work in tea states makes a significant minority.
Ethnic groupPopulation%
Sinhala674,66585.89%
Sri Lankan Tamil14,9081.90%
Indian Tamil44,2025.63%
Sri Lankan Moors50,4196.42%
Burger1910.02%
other1,1390.14%
Total785,524100.00%

Religious groups (2011 census)

Religious groupPopulation%
Buddhist707,83084.7%
Islam60,5757.24%
Hindu53,9976.45%
Roman Catholic8,2210.98%
protestant5,8650.7%
other1150.02%
Total836,603100.00%

Notable places

Elephant Orphanage of Pinnawala

Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage of Pinnawala attracts thousands of tourists daily.