If you want to get closer and personal with elephants, the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage (PEO) is the best place to do so. You can travel by road or train to this place. I made my journey by road, which took about three hours from Colombo on the Kandy Road and the Orphanage is about 10 kms beyond Rambukkana.
In the early days, baby elephants that were orphaned in the wilds were located at the Wilpattu National Park, then shifted to Bentota tourist area and then to Dehiwela Zoo.
Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage was established by the Department of Wildlife in 1975 on a 25-acre coconut plantation in the Pinnawala village, as the area has plenty of water from Maha Oya River and all orphaned baby elephants were shifted to this place. The success and fame of this enterprise soon traveled throughout the world and became known as one of the few “Elephant Orphanages” in the world. The Orphanage was taken over by the National Zoological Gardens in 1978. An Elephant Breeding Program was launched in 2012.
Currently, I understand there are about 100 baby elephants and about 50 mahouts (handlers) to handle them.
All visitors are charged an entrance fee, the income is to help maintain the Orphanage. Visitors to the park can view the care and daily routine of the elephants including bottle-feeding of elephant calves and feeding larger elephants. Bathing them in the Maha Oya River is a rare sight and attracts large number of local and foreign tourists.
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