Fruit Feast As Sri Lanka's First Jumbo Orphanage Marks Golden Jubilee

Pinnawala, Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka's main elephant orphanage marked its 50th anniversary Sunday with a fruit feast for the 68 jumbos at the showpiece centre, reputedly the world's first care home for destitute pachyderms.

The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage lavished pineapples, bananas, melons and cucumbers on its residents to celebrate the anniversary of their home, which is a major tourist attraction.

Visitors feed fruits to elephants at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala on February 16, 2025. (Photo by Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP)

A few officials and tourists invited to the low-key celebration were served milk rice and traditional sweets while four generations of elephants born in captivity frolicked in the nearby Maha Oya river.

"The first birth at this orphanage was in 1984, and since then, there have been a total of 76," said chief curator Sanjaya Ratnayake, as the elephants returned from their daily river bath.

"This has been a successful breeding programme, and today we have four generations of elephants here, with the youngest 18 months old and the oldest 70 years," he told AFP.

The orphanage recorded its first twin birth in August 2021 -- a rarity among Asian elephants -- and both calves are doing well.

Two years before the orphanage was formally established as a government institution in February 1975, five orphaned elephants were cared for at a smaller facility in the southern resort town of Bentota.

"Since the orphanage was set up at Pinnawala in 1975, in a coconut grove, the animals have had more space to roam, with good weather and plenty of food available in the surrounding area," Ratnayake said.

The home requires 14,500 kilos of coconut and palm tree leaves, along with other foliage, to satisfy the elephants' voracious appetites.

Elephants feed on jackfruit leaves at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala on February 16, 2025. (Photo by Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP)

It also buys tonnes of fruit and milk for the younger calves, who are adored by the foreign and local visitors to the orphanage, located about 90 kilometres (56 miles) east of the capital Colombo.

It is also a major revenue generator for the state, earning millions of dollars a year in entrance fees. Visitors can watch the elephants from a distance or get up close and help scrub them during bath times.

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