The Elephant Orphanage

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In Pinnawala, on the outskirts of the town of Kegalla, Sri Lanka, there are moments along the day when it is better to be careful going out to walk on the streets. No problems with crime or the sun burns. No more than elsewhere. Traffic is not particularly aggressive. But it is the time when the elephants go to bathe in the nearby Maya Oya River.

In 1975, the Sinhalese Wildlife Department decided to open a space where orphan baby elephants, coming from the jungle and from the Natural Parks of Yala, Bundala and Udawalawe were welcomed and carefully breed. Just on the first year six small proboscis, the two males Vijaya and Neela and females Kumari, Anusha, Mathali and Komali, already lived in the newly established orphanage.

Initially the orphanage had several locations, including the Dehiwala Zoo in the capital, Colombo. In 1978, the orphanage was home to a dozen calves. Then started to promote the centre as a means of defraying, with the visits, at least part of the expenses generated by animal’s maintenance.

Twenty years later, in 1997, they already got fifty-two elephants, ten of them babies under three years under the care of a dozen mahouts, caregivers. Currently there are more than eighty, twenty were born in Pinnawala and those first six babies are now already in its forties.

The orphanage tries to reproduce, wildlife conditions. So the elephants spend much of their time outdoors. Daily, once or twice, they splash at will in the river.

From the orphanage, on the way to the river, there’s almost a half mile. The group crosses the main road, the one that links the capital, Colombo, with Kandy. Then they proceed thru the town until they find the Maya Oya waters. About six in the evening are gathered and start their way back to the stables where they will overnight.

Pinnawala has become not only an attraction for foreign tourists, has also become popular among locals, especially during bathing times in the river.
Also when baby elephants are feed. Adults eat forage, about 75 kilograms per day each, plus a few kilos of fresh fruit.

© J.L.Nicolas

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