Udawalawe National Park

The Udawalawe National Park situated in the dry zone of the country and belonging to Sabaragamuwa & Uva provinces. The park area is 30,821 ha in area and was established in 1972. It park lies within dry zone and small segment lies within intermediate zone. The long dry season is characteristic feature. The main source of rainfall is the southwest monsoon (May - September) and mean annual rainfall is about 1,520mm. The mean annual temperature is around 29C.

Uda Walawe lies South of the central hills of the island, and it surrounds the man made reservoir of Uda Walawe, which is part of the park. It is a mixture of abandoned teak plantation, scrub jungle & grassland. The dry season is best to watch the many herds of elephant that roam the park; which is usually between May & September.

In our opinion, Uda Walawe is the best place to view elephants in the wild. More natural than the orphanages and often you can get just as close.

Udawalawe National Park is world famous for its large elephant population. In this park elephants can be seen at any time of the day. Crocodiles, water buffalo, spotted and barking deer, wild boar, sambur, jackal and ruddy, grey and striped necked mongoose are also found in this park. Though the leopard, jungle and fishing cats have recorded in the park sightings are very rare. T
Almost the entire park is covered with tall, reedy Pohon grass, which grows all year round, except during the months of June and October.

Uda Walawe is a superb place to watch elephants. An estimated 500 elephants in herds to up to 100 live here. One of the reasons is the elephant-proof fence that surrounds the perimeter of the park, which keeps the elephants in and the cattle (and humans) out.

Pinnewela Orphanage

The Pinnewela Elephant Orphanage is situated northwest of the town of Kegalla halfway between the present capital Colombo and the ancient royal residence Kandy in the hills of central Sri Lanka. It was established in 1975 by the Sri Lanka wildlife department in a 25-acre (100,000 m²) coconut property near the Maya Oya River. The orphanage was originally founded in order to afford care and protection to the many orphaned elephants found in the jungle. As of 2008, there are about 84 elephants.

In 1978 the orphanage was taken over by the National Zoological Gardens from the Department of Wildlife and a captive breeding program was launched in 1982. Since this time over twenty three elephants have been born. The aim of the orphanage is to simulate the natural world. However, there are some exceptions: the elephants are taken to the river twice daily for a bath, and all the babies under three years of age are still bottle fed by the mahouts and volunteers. Each animal is also given around 76kg of green matter a day and around 2kg from a food bag containing rice bran and maize. They get access to water twice a day, from the river.

The orphanage is very popular and visited daily by many Sri Lankan and foreign tourists. The main attraction is clearly to observe the bathing elephants from the tall river bank as it allows visitors to observe the herd interacting socially, bathing and playing.

This 24-acre (97,000 m²) elephant orphanage is also a breeding place for elephants. Over Twenty three elephants have been born since 1984, and the orphanage has the largest herd of captive elephants in the world. While most of the elephants are healthy, one is blind and one, named Sama, has lost her front left leg due to a landmine.