Elephant Orphanage, Pinnawala.

6:07 AM 12/28/2023

Pinnawala elephant orphanage in Sri Lanka is the place where visiting tourists used to flock to see large elephants and elephant calves in captivity. These elephants are kept here after being rescued in the wild. Here orphaned elephant calves are nursed and habited to enter in to the natural wild life to go with their own. Pinnawala orphanage is located 90Km from Colombo City. It is located on the Dambulla and Kandy route. So you don't need to make a special trip to visit here. You can visit Pinnawala elephant orphanage on the way to Kandy. Here you can watch these large animals very close to you. Even you can feed young calves with milk bottles and can feed fruits to larger ones when they are being fed by the keepers. Some keepers may ask some money to feed the young elephants with milk in large feeding bottles. Don't try to feed the elephants by yourself alone. Also don't take photographs with the flash on, as the elephants don't like light.

This Orphanage is mostly visited by UK, USA, EU, Australians, Chinese and Indian origin people.

After their feeding time, these elephants used to go to the near by river that is running in front of the orphanage. The mahouts used to take them to the river twice a day for bathing in the river. It is a beautiful event to watch them walking across the street from their 25 acre Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage land to the river. They lay in the water by themselves while some elephants are helped by the keepers to clean and wash them. You can stand by the street and watch them or can get seat in the nearby restaurant to have some dining and drinks while watching these large animals bathing. Maha Oya is the name of the river where these elephants used to bath.

Take note that the Asian Elephants are gentle and are with good memory power. In times they become aggressive and can attack nearby people for unknown reason. So always keep distance from them. Don't forget they can run faster and can catch 25 mph (40 km/h) of speed, when it is necessary for them.

There are lot of souvenir shops and small restaurants are available along the road, where elephants used to go for bath. Here you can find lot of Sri Lanka handicrafts, brass works, Batik dresses and many more things to buy. Also you can find paper products that are produced from the Elephant dung which are sold in special shops.

If you are holding a Foreign Passport and if your birth place is a Sri Lanka city, then you don't need to buy a foreigner's entrance ticket.
Keep your ticket handy as they may check it while being there.

How to reach Pinnawala?

You can reach Pinnawala by car, public Bus, Motorcycle, Tuk Tuk or through Train that can stop in a nearby train station.

Opening hours: 8:30 am - 06:30 pm
Milk Bottle feeding: 09.15 am and 13.15 pm
Elephant's Bathing: 10.00 am till 12:00 pm and 14.00 pm till 16:00 pm

All the visitors must buy tickets for to enter the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage and to watch them while they are bathing. Keep your tickets with you till to the end of the tour and ready to leave the place. There used to be sudden checking of tickets from the visitors by the security guards. Even when you are going to the river after passing the road, they may check whether you have a valid ticket with you.

Video

Feeding.

TripAdvisor.