Tam: சுண்டிக்குளம் c(h)uṇṭikkuḷam – Sinhala: කුම්බවැව kumbavæwa
‘Dried-up Lake’ -Lagoon/Lake, Town, NP, Sri Lanka
From Tam: kulam, ‘tank, reservoir, lake’; and chundu (chundi-), ‘dry up, be evaporated by heat’.
Chundikkulam (also Elephant Pass Lagoon) has been a bird sanctuary since 1938 and became a national park in 2015 with an area of 48,000 acres (or nearly 20,000 international rugby fields).
The lagoon is linked to rivers from the South and was formerly connected to the Jaffna Lagoon and the Indian Ocean in the West, but the new Elephant Pass Causeway has effectively turned it into a lake, The town of Chundikkulam is at the southeastern edge of the lagoon which links up with Elephant Pass in the Northwest.
The lagoon features a mixture of brackish lagoon, dried river beds, flowering sea grasses, palmyra trees, scrub forest, and mangrove swamp. It hosts a wide range of water and wading birds including curlews, flamingos, godwits, gulls, sandpipers, storks, and terns.
