Created in 1975 by the government to protect injured or orphaned elephants, Pinnawala is home to these superb pachyderms, who are allowed to roam free under supervision... and with interest.
Initially located in Wilpattu National Park, the orphanage is now based in the village of Pinnawala, around fifty kilometres from Kandy.
The centre is home to around 80 elephants, males and females, over three generations.
After paying an entrance fee of 2,500 rupees, we can approach these majestic animals on the edge of the 10-hectare park where they live in semi-liberty. Or watch them bathe and frolic in the nearby Maha Oya river. A very touristy spot, with its temple merchants, but well worth the diversions.
The price is quite high for the country (around 16?) and, as in most places in Sri Lanka, there is a price for locals and a price for tourists. What's more, the mahouts insist on tipping you to have your photo taken near the elephants. It's like being in a specialised zoo where tourists are treated like cows to be milked.
You can get very close to the elephants. At least the ones that are most used to visitors.
But the show is still on, whether in the park, when the baby elephants are bottle-fed, or at the twice-daily bath, which is accessed via a street lined with souvenir stalls.
Elephants are particularly fond of bathing: bathing in water, mud and dust.
When we visited, two adult elephants were shackled with heavy chains and tied to poles: this is the only way the vets can treat the sometimes serious injuries they suffer. Trapped by farmers whose crops they ravage (the authorities estimate that around 200 elephants are killed each year, mainly by farmers), poached for their ivory and meat, or to steal their babies, wild elephants pay a heavy price. All the more so since the new craze of some rich Sri Lankans is to own a baby elephant as a pet and a status animal! However, poachers cannot kidnap the baby without confronting the mother, which usually ends in her death because she defends her calf to the bitter end. Although in Sri Lanka the elephant is revered by the predominantly Buddhist population, and killing an elephant is punishable by death, strangely there are very few prosecutions?
This young elephant, coated in ochre earth, approached me gently and looked me in the eye. Without blinking, without any fear.
Until recently, elephants from the Pinnawala orphanage were given to Buddhist temples for parades during religious ceremonies. But this principle has been called into question by NGOs, who are calling for elephant calves to no longer be separated from their families. More and more tourists and associations are becoming indignant about the mistreatment of elephants, who travel several kilometres heavily laden during these festivals and are sometimes injured by mahouts who show little respect for their well-being.
Fortunately, some improvements are being made to protect these animals. Electric fences have been installed around certain areas to protect the rice fields. To cap it all, it is more effective to lock up the villagers than to park the herds of elephants! And since the end of 2016, elephant owners are no longer allowed to use elephants under the age of ten for work. And elephants under the age of five may no longer be used in parades.
For wild elephants, the challenge is to survive in an increasingly hostile environment.
Where they used to find their natural food and migration routes, they are now finding fields and villages as a result of population growth and deforestation. It?s not a simple equation! Especially as every year, around fifty people are killed by elephants in Sri Lanka.
As a result of deforestation, there are around 6,000 wild elephants left on the island today, compared with 12,000 a century ago.
At Pinnawala, the baby elephants, many of which were born in captivity, and those that have been injured will never be released back into the wild. One of the guides explained to us that an elephant that has been trapped or injured remembers, even years later, the person who harmed it, and will kill that person if it crosses his path. An elephant?s memory?
Time for a shower! Always a favourite with the elephants.
http://nationalzoo.gov.lk/elephantorphanage/
Text and photos: Brigitte Postel
Hello,
I discovered your article after visiting the so-called Pinnawela orphanage. It was a very sad sight for those of us who are used to seeing elephants in the wild: limited access to water, promiscuity, mental hindrance, elephants being put on show for crowds of 200 tourists... But the worst thing about this whole charade is that the orphanage wants people to believe that these are the best living conditions that elephants can have. I deplore the fact that your article glorifies this type of attraction by openly siding with the pleasure of the traveller's eyes, forgetting the notion of animal welfare and eco-responsibility. You quite rightly point out that elephant migration routes are being destroyed by urbanisation and intensive agriculture. Wouldn't the best solution be to preserve the main migration routes instead of keeping elephants in tourist fairs? As for 'improvements' to protect these animals, I'm stunned... but after all, it must seem normal to most people to use a wild animal as a beast of burden or to put it on show. Finally, on the subject of poaching: does Sri Lanka really protect elephants, or does it encourage the ivory trade by displaying tusks several metres high in the great temples as a sign of wealth? That said, I look forward to hearing your argument...
Thank you for your comments, which help to draw attention to the plight of these magnificent animals. Pinnawela is both an orphanage and what I call a "zoo" to show the other side, which I also deplore. You have to consider that it is first and foremost a treatment and rehabilitation centre, even if the animals are very rarely released back into the wild for various reasons.
I am in no way advocating this centre; I am describing the situation as it is. You can?t compare animals that live in freedom with others that have been rounded up in a place that was originally designed to protect them. It is true that some elephants are shackled, as they were the last time I was there. Two were injured and the others were dangerous to humans, because an elephant that has been trapped by humans can charge. On the other hand, I didn?t see any ill-treatment and they had water tanks at their disposal, apart from bathing in the river, which takes place at least twice a day.
The choices made by the Sri Lankan government are not my responsibility. Most of the elephants? migratory routes are located in national parks, but with the development of urbanisation and deforestation, their habitat is shrinking. They also come into farmers? fields in search of food, which is not without its problems for a population that is very poor. Competition is causing deaths on both sides.
The fact remains that, having spoken to vets, these animals cannot be set free without danger to the people and to themselves. As for the improvements I am talking about, these are fences to prevent the animals from destroying villages and crops. And laws are beginning to be enacted to protect them more effectively. But nothing can replace watching these animals in their natural habitat.