Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage in Colombo

Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage in Colombo is situated northwest of the town Kegalla, between the present capitol Colombo and the ancient royal residence Kandy in the hills of central Sri Lanka. Established in 1975 by the Sri Lanka Wildlife department, it is a 24 acres large elephant orphanage and a breeding place for elephants. It started with 5 baby elephants in 1975 and now it has the greatest herd of elephants in captivity in the world.

Features of Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage in Colombo

  -   Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage was started in 1975 by the Department of Wildlife.
  -   The orphanage was primarily planned to afford care and protection to the many baby elephants found in the jungle without their mothers.
  -   In most of these cases, it was seen that the mother had either died or had been killed.
  -   In some instances, the baby had fallen into a pit and in some other cases, the mother had fallen in and died.
  -   Initially this orphanage was at the Wilpattu National Park. Later, it was shifted to the tourist complex at Bentota and then again, to the Dehiwala Zoo.
  -   Finally, it was shifted to Pinnawela in 1975.
  -   At that time, the orphanage had only five baby elephants.
  -   It was expected that this would attract both local and foreign visitors and the income would help to maintain the orphanage.
  -   Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage is one of the few elephant orphanages in the world and a quite well known name across the world.
  -   In 1978, the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage was taken over by the National Zoological Gardens from the Department of Wildlife and a captive breeding program was launched in 1982.
  -   When the zoo took over, there were twelve animals five of whom were babies.
  -   Later, more baby elephants were added to the original herd of five and in 2003, the number of elephants reached to 65.
  -   An important observation was that though older females could be added, it was not possible to add older males to the herd.
  -   In 1997, there are 52 animals of which there 10 were babies under 3 years of age.
  -   There were five mahouts for the twelve elephants when the orphanage was taken over in 1978 and now there are twenty mahouts.
  -   AT 8 o' clock, the babies are fed on milk in the mornings and allowed to range freely on the 12 acres large grassland.
  -   During each morning and afternoon, the animals are walked 400 meters to the river Maha Oya for a two-hour bath.
  -   Then, they are given their evening feed # milk for the babies and leaves for the older ones.
  -   In 1997 and 1998, research work was conducted in Pinnawela through a joint venture by Institute of Wildbiology at Vienna University in Austria and the Zoological Institutes of Colombo and Peradeniya in Sri Lanka.
  -   Veterinary students from the Universities collected datas about the elephants' body measurements and growth, food assimilation, social interactions, sleeping behavior, tool-using and stereotypical behaviors.