Pinnawela is a small village in the Kegalle District best known as the home of the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage, founded in 1975 to care for wild elephants that had been orphaned or injured in the jungle. It now houses one of the largest captive elephant herds in the world, and for many visitors it is the highlight of the drive between Colombo and Kandy, about 90km from Colombo.
Twice a day the herd is walked down to the Maha Oya river for a bath — elephants splashing, rolling, and dousing each other in a wide, shallow stretch of river while visitors watch from the bank. Baby elephants are bottle-fed at 08:00 and 13:00, which draws crowds but is genuinely charming.
The orphanage has attracted sustained criticism from animal welfare organisations, particularly for the use of chains on older elephants and the conditions in which they are kept between river trips. It is worth a visit, but go with open eyes. Admission prices for foreigners are set separately from local rates and are posted at the entrance. For a smaller, more hands-on experience, the Millennium Elephant Foundation a couple of kilometres down the road runs a much smaller sanctuary for retired working elephants, and the newer Pinnawala Open Zoo on the hill above the village offers a half-day's wander among open paddocks of deer, big cats, and ostriches.