Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage

The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage is situated northwest of the town of Kegalle, halfway between the present capital Colombo and the ancient royal residence Kandy. It was established in 1975 by the Sri Lanka Wildlife Department in a 25 acre coconut property adjoining the Maha Oya River.
 The orphanage was originally founded in order to afford care and protection to the many orphaned Elephants found in the jungles of Sri Lanka.

In 1978 the orphanage was taken over by the National Zoological Gardens from the Department of Wildlife. A captive breeding program was launched in 1982. Since the inception of the program over 20 elephants have been breaded here. The aim of the orphanage is to simulate a natural habitat to these elephants. However, there are some exceptions: the elephants are taken to the river twice a day for a bath, and all the babies less than three years of age are still bottle fed by the mahouts and volunteers.

Each animal is also given around 76 kg of green matter a day and around 2 kg from a food bag containing rice bran and maize. The orphanage which boasts to have the largest herd of captive elephants in the world is very popular and visited daily by many Sri Lankan and foreign tourists. The main attraction is clearly to observe the elephants bathing which is quite a spectacle.

History of the Pinnawala (Pinnawela) Elephant Orphanage

In the very beginning, in 1972, the orphanage was located at the Wilpattu National Park. Subsequently the orphanage was shifted to the National Holiday Resort at Bentota Beach in the south-western coastal belt and then to the Dehiwala Zoo, 11km south of Colombo. In the year 1975, the Department of Wildlife of Sri Lanka set up its present home: Pinnawala (Pinnawela) Elephant Orphanage at Pinnawala, Kegalle. Since then it never turned back on an orphaned elephant: it welcomed all and expanded from 4 orphaned elephants to a gang of no less than 109.

The purpose of Pinnawala (Pinnawela) Elephant Orphanage

The primary purpose of the orphanage has been to provide a lifeline to the orphaned baby elephants and adult elephants lost in the wilderness. In many occasions the mother of the orphaned baby elephant had been killed or there have been accidents of baby elephants falling into pits and losing out to the herd. There were also instances the mother elephant had fallen into a pit and died leaving the baby elephant lost in the jungle.

There are instances of adult elephants being killed by farmers to protect their paddy fields and crops resulting in baby elephants being orphaned.

The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage was launched to provide the best possible opportunity to the sad victims of such situations. Captive breeding at Pinnawala (Pinnawela) Elephant Orphanage.

The elephants at the Orphanage aren’t subjected to any form of stress, abuse or threat at all and are supported by a team of employees numbering to over 100 including a group of mahouts.

The free movement of the herd within the enclosed land of the orphanage affords the elephants opportunities to mate. In 1984, the first baby elephant of Pinnawela was born. Today some of these orphans enjoy the good fortune of seeing their third generation too born at the orphanage.

Moreover, today, with the help of local and foreign elephant experts, the Orphanage has commenced a scientific captive-breeding programme for Elephants. Since then the orphanage has become one of the most successful captive breeding programmes for Asian elephants.