Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage

Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage is an orphanage. Pinnawala is notable for having the largest herd of captive elephants in the world.Pinnawela orphanage is situated northwest of the town Kegalle.halfways between capital of srilanka colombo and kandy.The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage was first established by the Sri Lankan Department of Wildlife. Conservation in 1975 for feeding and providing care and sanctuary to orphaned baby elephants that were found in the wild.The orphanage was primarily designed to afford care and protection to the many baby elephants found in the wild without their mothers. In most of these cases the mother had either died or been killed. In some instances the baby had fallen into a pit and in others the mother had fallen in and died. The orphanage was Initially located at the Wilpattu National Park, then shifted to the tourist complex at Bentota and then to the Dehiwala Zoo. From the Zoo it was shifted to Pinnawala village on a 25-acre (10 ha) coconut plantation adjacent to the Maha Oya River.In 1978,the orphanage was taken over by the Department of National Zoological Gardens Sri Lanka.The Pinnawala Orphanage has since become a tourist attraction In 1982 an elephant breeding program was launched.now many elephants living here.

The orphanage is open to the public daily .many visitors all over the world come to visit this Elephant Orphanage daily. Tourists can observe the bathing elephants from the broad river bank as the herd interacts socially, bathing and playing. There are only a few elephant orphanages in the world.present Pinnawela has become one of the bigger orphanages and well known elephant orphanage.