Beautiful spaces in Sri Lanka

Pinnawala, the elephant home:

by Husna Inayathullah

The Pinnawala elephant orphanage has the largest herd of captive elephants in the world. Twenty elephants were born there since 1984.While most of the elephants are healthy, some are blind and disabled.The first elephant birth at Pinnawala was in 1984. Sukumalee, a female was born to Vijaya and Kumar who were aged 21 and 20 years at the time.

The males Vijaya and Neela and females Kumari, Anusha, Mathalie and Komali have since then parented several baby elephants. More than twenty-three elephants were born from 1984 to 1991. In 1998, there were fourteen births at Pinnawala, eight males and six females with one second generation birth in early 1998. Since then till early2012, 84 more were born at Pinnawala. 12 elephants were released to temples and private owners since June, 2011.

The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage is situated northwest of the town of Kegalle, halfway between the present capital Colombo and Kandy in the hills of central Sri Lanka. It was set up in 1975 by the Wildlife Department on a 25- acre coconut property near the Maha Oya.

The orphanage was originally founded to afford care and protection to the many orphaned elephants found in the jungle. In 1978, the orphanage was taken over by the National Zoological Gardens from the Department of Wildlife and a captive breeding program was launched in 1982. Since then over twenty elephants have been born.

The aim of the orphanage is to simulate the natural world. However, there are some exceptions.

The elephants are taken to the river twice daily for a bath. All baby elephants under three years are still bottle-fed by mahouts and volunteers. Each animal is also given around 76kg of green leaves a day and around 2kg from a food bag containing rice bran and maize. They get access to water twice a day from the river.

The orphanage is popular and visited daily by many Sri Lankan and foreign tourists. The main attraction is clearly to observe the bathing elephants from the tall river bank as it allows visitors to observe the herd interacting socially, bathing and playing.

This 24-acre elephant orphanage is also a breeding place for elephants.