The Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage near Kegalle, with the largest herd of captive wild Asian Elephants in the world.

It was founded in 1975 by the Sri Lankan Department of Wildlife Conservation and initially looked after wild elephants found in the jungle, that were either orphaned or injured, not seldom as a result of the Singhalese conflict with the Tamil Tigers, but later also started a breeding program.

Parts of the orphanage's program is comparable to the Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation in Lampang, Thailand (fig.).