Udawalawe Elephant orphanage

The Udawalawe elephant transit home is a major body that acts on behalf to rehabilitate orphaned baby elephants. This is a major facility within Udawalawe national park that was established In 1995 by the department of Wildlife conservation [sri lanka]. When considering its location, Embilipitiya is the nearest town and is located in Sabaragamuwa province, Sri Lanka. The department of wildlife conservation act is the name governing body of this Elephant transit home. Its main objective is to rehabilitate orphan Elephant calves for ultimate release back into their natural habitat.

The location which exists is very attractive and wonderful due to its geographical and environmental location. It is situated on the western border of the 33,000 hectares of Udawalawe national park and closer to the ‘Udawalawe reservoir. Udawalawe elephant transit home has been recognized as one of the best wild animal rehabilitation centers in the world due to several reasons. Examples: its location, services done by them on behalf of to rehabilitate Elephants, etc.

Here the Elephant calves have no boundaries and have the freedom to roam wherever they want and sometimes wild elephants also visit these premises. Some environmental changes also occur with the incensement of the water level in the reservoir. In such circumstance, they used to adapt to those changes and sometimes creates diversity for both baby Elephants and wild elephants.

Elephants in the wild are constantly being killed and many Elephant calves become orphaned. All these things happened due to inhuman activities and then elephants become an endangered species and their survival in their natural habitats is threatened because of that. By considering all those things in order to support these orphaned ones the Department of wildlife conservation set up the elephant transit home within Udawalawe national park. This facility was established under the 29th amendment to the fauna and flora protection ordinance part 2.

This is a lively place and feeding milk to the calves every 3 hours is a recurring job on all 365 days of the year. Elephant transit home takes care of elephants until they are independent and able enough to be released back into the wild.

There is an information center and the public can have more information about this premises, orphan Elephants through this center. The public can visit this place four times daily

At 10:30 am, 02:30 pm, and 06:00 pm

The department of wildlife conservation do its best on behalf to rehabilitate orphan elephants until they are independent. This is a huge service done by the Sri Lankan wildlife conservation department. So, it has been recognized as one of the best wild animal rehabilitation centers in the world.