Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, Sri Lanka

Nestled in the village of Pinnawala in the Kegalle district, roughly 90 kilometres from Colombo, the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage is one of Sri Lanka's most cherished wildlife sanctuaries. This video offers an extended look at the orphanage and the remarkable herd of elephants that call it home — a community that has grown from just four individuals into a thriving group of no fewer than 109.

The orphanage is reached via the A1 Colombo–Kandy main road, with a turn-off at the 82 km post at Kegalle leading directly to Pinnawala. Visitors arriving by rail will find the closest station at Rambukkana, approximately 2 kilometres from the village.

A Sanctuary With a Travelling History

The story of the orphanage begins in 1972, when it was first established at Wilpattu National Park. Over the following years it moved twice more — first to the National Holiday Resort at Bentota Beach on the south-western coastal belt, and then to the Dehiwala Zoo, 11 kilometres south of Colombo. It was not until 1975 that the Department of Wildlife of Sri Lanka gave the sanctuary its permanent home at Pinnawala, Kegalle. Since that founding, the orphanage has never turned away an elephant in need.

Why the Elephants Come to Pinnawala

Each elephant at Pinnawala has arrived through difficult circumstances. In many cases, a mother has been killed, leaving her calf with no means of survival in the wild. Other calves have fallen into pits and become separated from their herds, and there have been instances where a mother elephant herself fell into a pit and died, leaving her young alone in the jungle. Adult elephants, too, have sometimes been killed by farmers protecting their paddy fields and crops, orphaning the calves that depended on them.

The primary purpose of the orphanage has always been to provide a lifeline to these animals — both orphaned calves and adult elephants lost in the wilderness. Fully geared to meet the physical and emotional needs of its residents, the sanctuary aims to give each animal the opportunity for a healthy and settled life.

A Growing Family

What began as a refuge for four orphaned elephants has expanded steadily over the decades into a herd of more than a hundred. The scale of that growth speaks to both the ongoing pressures elephants face in the wild and the dedication of the staff who have cared for generation after generation of arrivals. Watching the herd together — bathing, feeding, and moving as a group — gives a sense of the social world that the orphanage works hard to preserve for animals that might otherwise have had none.