Milk, dinner, lunch time for Elephants!

 Others were wounded and maimed. A few of them were babies found stranded or trapped in the forest and deserted by their herds, yet others were orphaned and were found standing near the carcasses of their mothers.

Many of them are victims of man’s cruelty. Some of the elephants arrived in the orphanage with bullet wounds as a result of the growing conflict between man and elephants. Others are casualties of the civil war in Sri Lanka and are either victims of gunshots or landmines.

Elephants are revered in Sri Lanka and its tusks are considered sacred in Buddhist culture. The elephant is perpetually present in the Sri Lankan psyche. The elephants, clad in colourful attire are used in religious ceremonies, processions and pageants. Their images are found on temples walls and ceilings, paintings and sculptures, carved on woodwork and craftwork. Their stories are narrated in legends and folklore.
It is only in recent times that elephants became victims of human cruelty. No one knows exactly how many elephants have been killed in the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. The elephants were the most affected because most of the fighting took place in the forest where they live.

Every elephant found in the orphanage has a story.  Priyanth, one of the mahouts, narrates to us the stories of some of them. Sama is a lame elephant which was brought to the orphanage in 1996 from Polonnaruwa.  She was found wounded in the jungle with her foot blown off by a land mine. Raja, the blind tusker, was brought to the orphanage in 1994 from Galenbindunuwewa. He was shot and blinded by farmers to protect their crops. Pandu was brought to the orphanage in 2004 from Vauniya. It has lost one ear.
All these elephants have found a home in the Pinnawala elephant orphanage.  Pinnawala is a village in Kegalle district of Sri Lanka and is around 90 km from the capital, Colombo. The orphanage is in a 25 acre coconut land set up in 1975. It was started with a herd of five baby elephants and today there are over 80, many of whom were born here over the years.

Every day all the baby elephants are fed with milk using bottles. It is a treat to watch them when the mahouts feed them. The older elephants feed on leaves native to Sri Lanka such as jackfruit, coconut and palmyr. Feeding time for elephants is three times a day at 9.15 am, 1.15 pm and 5 pm.

Another daily activity which the elephants enjoy very much is the bath which is two times a day at 10 am and 2 pm. The mahouts accompany the elephants from the orphanage to the river Maha Oya. They have to cross a road and walk for a short distance down a mud lane to reach the river.  They walk in one straight line, accompanied by the mahouts and never stray. The last elephant in the line is, of course, Sama, the lame elephant, trudging with his three legs.

The wide area of shallow water and the huge rocks of Maha Oya make the ideal place for the elephants. Mothers and their babies play in the river. Young male and female elephants frolic in the river water. It is time for the elephants to ‘chill out’ and socialise. Sometimes they even chase each other and fight. They spray fountains of water from their trunks high in the air or on their own backs. Hundreds of people watch them while they bath and they are least perturbed by the hordes of visitors.