Talawakelle (, ) is a town in

Nuwara Eliya District Nuwara Eliya District (; ) is a district in Central Province, Sri Lanka, centered on the tourist city of Nuwara Eliya. Demographics According to the 2001 census of Sri Lanka, population of Nuwara Eliya district is 703,610, of which 50.5 ...

in the

Central Province, Sri Lanka The Central Province ( ''Madhyama Paḷāta'', ''Maddiya Mākāṇam'') is one of the nine provinces of Sri Lanka. The province has an area of 5,674 km2 and a population of 2,421,148, making it the 2nd most populated province. The city of Kand ...

, governed by an

Urban Council The Urban Council (UrbCo) was a municipal council in Hong Kong responsible for municipal services on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon (including New Kowloon). These services were provided by the council's executive arm, the Urban Services ...

. It is the centre of the Dimbula tea planting district, the largest tea growing area in Sri Lanka.

Cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...

: p. 133 It is situated on A7 Colombo-Nuwara Eliya highway. The altitude of Talawakelle is . Talawakelle railway station is one of the major stops of Udarata (Sinhala "Hill Country") or Main railway line. The town is administered by Talawakelle-Lindula urban council. Located in the

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

Badulla Badulla (, ; ,) is the capital and the largest city of Uva Province situated in the central hills of Sri Lanka. It is the capital city of Uva Province and the Badulla District. Geography Badulla is located in the southeast of Kandy, almost enci ...

railway line, and Avissawella - Nuware Eliya main Road (A7) the town serves as a gateway to Tea Research Institute of Sri Lanka, Nuwara Eliya and tourists.

Climate

The mean annual temperature is around 18°C in the area and this climate is described as the perfect "tea-climate".

Demography

Majority of the population of Talawakelle is Indian Tamils who are workers of neighboring tea estates. The town considered the focal point of Indian Tamil politics in Sri Lanka. Small portion of Sinhalese also live in the town.

Main schools

Schools in Talawakelle are part of the Nuwara-Eliya school district. * Talawakelle Tamil Maha Vidyalayam - Tamil Medium * Sumana Secondary School is a provincial school for grades 6 through 13. It has an Advanced Science track. Instruction is done in both Sinhala and English. * St. Patrick's College, Talawakelle - Tamil Medium

Visitor attractions

There are two waterfalls situated around Talawakelle area. Both the waterfalls formed by

Kothmale Oya The Kotmale River () is the longest tributary of Mahaweli River. The river begins as the Agra Oya, in the Horton Plains. The Central Plains have an annual rainfall of between 125 and 200 inches a year. The river is approximately long and drains ...

, which runs through the town. *

Devon Falls Devon Falls, known as the 'Veil of the Valley', is a waterfall in Sri Lanka, situated west of Talawakele, Nuwara Eliya District on the A7 highway (Sri Lanka), A7 highway. The falls is named after a pioneer English coffee planter called Devon, w ...

* St. Clair's Falls

Post and telephone

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

''00 94'' *

Area code A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, rea ...

''052'' *

Postal code A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or numerical digit, digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, inclu ...

''22100''

Upper Kothmale Project

The last major hydro-electricity project in Sri Lanka,

Upper Kotmale Dam The Upper Kotmale Dam (also known as the Upper Kotmale Hydropower Project, or UKHP) is located in Talawakele, within the Nuwara Eliya District, in the Central Province, Sri Lanka, Central Province of Sri Lanka. The dam feeds the third largest hy ...

, is currently underway near the town of Talawakelle. The project drew many a protests from environmentalists and local residents. Owing to threatened existence of St. Clair's Falls and fear of losing or submerging their homes to the dam.

Notes

References

* {{Municipalities and Urban areas of Sri Lanka Populated places in Nuwara Eliya District