Elephant Orphanage, Pinnawala, Sri Lanka

Sri_Lanka-1, originally uploaded by Abhishek's Received Postcards.

Pinnawala is a village in Kegalle district of Sri Lanka and is around 90 km from the capital, Colombo. It is well known for its elephant orphanage.
The Pinnewela Elephant Orphanage is situated northwest of the town of Kegalle, halfway between the present capital Colombo and the ancient royal residence Kandy in the hills of central Sri Lanka. It was established in 1975 by the Sri Lanka wildlife department in a 25-acre (100,000 m2) coconut property near the Maha Oya river. The orphanage was originally founded in order to afford care and protection to the many orphaned elephants found in the jungle. As of 2008, there are about 84 elephants.