Chundikulam National Park is located in the center of the strip of land that connects the Jaffna peninsula to the rest of the island. Since 1938, Chundikulam Lagoon and its surroundings had been designated as a bird sanctuary. However, after the area was re-captured from the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) during the civil war in 2009, it was assigned as a national park, administered by the Department of Wildlife Conservation in Sri Lanka, in 2015.