Visit to the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage
See majestic Asian elephants up close at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. You’ll have the opportunity to observe and interact with the elephants.
The park is open from 8.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. daily.
Watch the entire herd take a bath in the river. There are 2 bathing sessions per day, everyday of the year. The morning session is scheduled from 10 am to 12 noon and the afternoon session is from 2 pm to 4 pm.
Take a walk to the elephant park to see baby elephants being bottle fed. Enjoy the chance to feed a baby elephant with a bottle of milk — a rare and unforgettable experience!
Visitors can bottle-feed the baby elephants after buying a mega-feeding bottle for them. This daily event is available from 9.15 am – 9.45 am and 01.15 pm – 01.45 pm. This is a wonderful opportunity to get up close with these cute baby elephants.
Enjoy lunch at Elephant Bay Restaurant.
The orphanage the elephants live in was set up in 1975 to care for wild elephants in the country. The orphanage opened with 5 elephants. Now there are 81 of them.
Most of them have been rescued because they were injured or abandoned by their mothers. Some were born in captivity.
Some elephants in the orphanage who were found as calves abandoned in the wild need special care. They suffer from various sicknesses and need regular attention.
Curators of the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage are biologists who have dedicated their service to the welfare of elephants for many years in the centre.
The animals are well looked after. They are given daily medication, right food and plenty of water and a river bath. If released to the wild they will face food shortage and especially water.
The elephants have formed their own family and they live together. The calves are born here and live with their family and do not know how to mix with the other elephants in the wild. If released, they will be unattended and they would not survive in the wild.
According to official records, there are around 7,500 wild elephants in Sri Lanka.
Twin baby elephants born in Elephant Orphanage
An elephant has given birth to twin calves in the Pinnawala orphanage in August 2021, which is the first time in the country for 80 years. Elephants are able to give birth to twins, although it is rare and they usually only give birth to one.
The male twins and their mother, 25-year-old Surangi, are all in good health. The twins’ father is called Pandu. People are flocking to Pinnawala to see the grown up twins and their mother.
How to Reach Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage
The Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage is widely popular in Sri Lanka. The new traveler can easily find it because of its proximity to the Colombo city. You can ask the tuk-tuks or a cab to take you there, take bus or train.
By Bus: A bus is the easiest way to get to Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage because there are direct buses to Kandy and Pinnawala. It will roughly take 1.5 hours from Colombo to reach the desired destination. Before getting on the bus, make sure to ask the conductor if it will take the route through the orphanage. Some of the buses to Kandy take the route towards the outskirts of the town. The buses are constant throughout the day and can be boarded anytime. Alight at the Pinnawala bus stop, a few kilometers from the orphanage. Catch a tuk-tuk from there.
By Train: The nearest railway station to the Pinnawala elephant sanctuary is the Polgahawela station. The trains towards Pinnawala (Polgahawela station) from Colombo start from 8:30 am in the morning and go on till 8:50 pm in the evening.
If you are using the Colombo – Kandy train, alight at Rambukkana station to reach Pinnawala. It locates just 2 km from Rambukkana railway station. Rambukkana is the 4th stop after Polgahawela on the slow train towards Kandy.
The journey by train takes nearly 2 hours but also lets you lie down and relax on the way to the destination. Board the train at the nearest railway station to your hotel or living accommodation and alight at the Polgahawela station. Take a local bus or a tuk-tuk to the orphanage.
The tuk-tuks from the station or bus stop will drop you right in front of the Pinnawala elephant orphanage.