The Government of Sri Lanka established an elephant orphanage in Pinnawela in the year 1975 to care for such abandoned and orphaned elephants and their numbers have grown ever since. Today Pinnawela is home for over 80 captive elephants, and is thought to be largest captive herd in the world.
Caring and feeding such a large number of elephants is but a huge task itself. Alternatively the Government in the year 1995 created the Elephant Transit Home [ETH] in Uda Walawe [Sinhala - Eth Athuru Sevana] with the idea of caring and bringing up baby elephants found abandoned in the wild until they could be released back to the wild devoid of bringing up them in captivity.
The Elephant Transit Home in Uda Walawe is loved by many and is visited by many to see these calves being given milk as feed four times a day; at 9 am, 12 noon, 3 pm and 6 pm. It is only during these times that the general public get a chance to see them. The rest of the time they spend in the confines out of the view of people in a areas adjacent to the reservoir in the thicket.