Eco-Trips Aide the Revitalization of Sri Lanka’s Elephant Population

Pinnawela elephant orphanage. Photo courtesy of Flickr.com

PINNAWELA, Sri Lanka - Eco-tourism in Sri Lanka is thriving, according to the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, which in turn is also providing a much needed boost to the country’s elephant conservation and breeding projects.

“The elephant population in Sri Lanka was being decimated to near extinction by the natural loss of their habitat, the hunting due to the lucrative ivory trade, and lack of proper management,” said Dileep Mudadeniya., SLTPB Managing Director, adding “but all that is history now.

“From merely seven elephants in 1975, the Pinnawela elephant orphanage now houses 65 elephants, including several bred in captivity, under the intelligent management of the National Zoological Gardens.” The elephants roam free in the 25-acre coconut plantation where they eat grass in addition to a daily diet of coconut palm, jackfruit, and other leaves, says the bureau, adding that the baby elephants at the orphanage are bottle fed on milk by their handlers.

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