ELEPHANT ORPHANAGE - PINNAWALA

Wasgamuwa National Park Is situated 225 km from Colombo and in the provinces of Central and North-Central and covers an area of 39,322 ha, bounded by two rivers, Mahaweli from Eastern side, Read more   Dambulla - The ancient monastery at Dambulla is best known for its rock temples and well-preserved 18th century paintings. It is one of the largest cave temple complexes in South Asia with about 2000 square meters of rock and wall paintings. Read more   Botanic Gardens - ( Hakgala )Located 10km. away from Nuwara Eliya (hill resort) and under the shadow of the peak of Hakgala, in an elevation of 6000ft. above the sea level, possibly, the highest-set botanic gardens anywhere in the world. Established in 1861 in a land area of 22ha Read more	The Elephant orphanage in Pinnawela is located 88km. North East of Colombo, in the village called Pinnawela, close to the main city Kegalle. This orphanage was started in 1975 by the Department of National Zoological Gardens in order to feed, nurse and house young and infant elephants found abandoned by their mothers and those who lost their natural habitats due to the development projects and those who found diseased or wounded. The Orphanage, commenced with seven orphans. Today some of these orphans enjoy the fortune of seeing their grand-children born in the same location. The original objective of establishing the orphanage inclined more towards tourism, but is soon became a conservation and educational centre. With the help of local and foreign elephant experts, Pinnawela started a scientific captive-breeding programme for elephants. The free movement of the herd enhanced the chances for respective individuals of both sexes to get together and mate. The nearby river played a dominant role in this regard, and in 1984, the first baby elephant of Pinnawela was born.	Now it is a home for about 60 elephants and many of them are young ones and babies. Best time to visit is during the feeding times, when one will have the opportunity of seeing the baby elephants being bottle-fed. Also could accompany the elephants to a river close-by and see the elephants having their daily bath. The success story of Pinnawela has drawn the attention of scientists from all over the world. A considerable number of books and research articles on Pinnawela have been published in several languages. The members of the Pinnawela herd have been filmed, videoed and photographed thousands of times by professionals, and millions of times by amateurs. The message of conservation from Pinnawela has been passed on to thousands, if not millions of people, after their visit to the orphanage