Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage

The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage is located halfway between the former royal residence Kandy and the modern capital Colombo, northwest of the town of Kegalle. The Sri Lanka Wildlife Department founded it in 1975 on a 25 acre coconut land next to the Maha Oya River. The orphanage was initially established to provide care and protection for the numerous orphaned elephants discovered in Sri Lanka’s jungles.

The National Zoological Gardens acquired the orphanage from the Department of Wildlife in 1978. In 1982, a captive breeding program was started. In total, more than 20 elephants have been bred here since the program’s commencement. The orphanage’s goal is to provide these elephants with a natural environment-like environment. With a few exceptions, the mahouts and volunteers still bottle-feed all the young elephants under the age of three, and the elephants are bathed in the river twice daily.

Each animal also receives about 2 kg from a meal bag containing rice bran and maize, in addition to about 76 kg of green matter each day. Many Sri Lankan and foreign tourists visit the orphanage every day since it has the largest herd of captive elephants in the world. It is obvious that seeing the elephants bathe, which is quite a spectacle, is the main draw.