Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, Kandy - Timings, Safari Cost, Best Time to Visit

At a distance of 41 km from Kandy and 92 km from Colombo, Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage is an orphanage, nursery and captive breeding ground for wild Asian elephants located at Pinnawala village in Sabaragamuwa Province of Sri Lanka. It is one of the popular attractions to visit in Kandy as part of Sri Lanka Packages.

Pinnawala Orphanage was established in 1975 CE by the Sri Lanka Department of Wildlife Conservation in a 25-acre coconut property adjoining the Maha Oya River. It was originally founded for feeding and providing care to many orphaned baby elephants found in the jungles of Sri Lanka. The operations of this site began by rescuing and nurturing 5 abandoned baby elephants from the dense forests of Sri Lanka. The orphanage was taken over by the National Zoological Gardens from the Department of Wildlife in 1978 and a captive breeding program was launched in 1982. Since the inception of the program over 20 elephants have been bred here.

The addition of orphans continued till 1995 when the Elephant Transit Home (ETH) adjoining Udawalawe National Park was created by the Department of Wildlife Conservation. Since then, orphaned babies have been taken to the ETH and addition to the Pinnawala herd has been mostly through births occurring there. As of 2012, there were 78 elephants and about 48 mahouts who take care of the elephants. The female and young elephants in Pinnawala range freely as a herd during the day in an area of a few acres. At night, the females are individually chained in separate stalls. Adult males do some light work such as transporting feed. Calves born in Pinnawala are not bottle-fed, but a few from ETH are kept at Pinnawala and bottle-fed as a tourist attraction.

Visitors can interact a little with the elephants during the regulated bathing and feeding times. The baby elephants gulp down several huge bottles of milk, fed to them by their mahouts, and then it's off to the river for a bath. The inherent gentleness of the animals is most obvious during this time.

Timings: 8.30 AM - 5.30 PM, Feeding: 9.15 AM, 1.15 PM & 5 PM, Bathing: 10 AM & 2 PM

Entry: LKR. 110 per Adult & LKR. 30 per Child for Locals, LKR. 1400 per Adult & LKR. 700 per Child for SAARC Nationals, LKR. 2800 per Adult & LKR. 1250 per Child for Foreigners