Udawalawe National Park

Udawalawe National Park is a wildlife sanctuary in southern Sri Lanka, established in 1972, that is famous for its large and easily observable population of Asian elephants. Created to protect displaced animals from the construction of the Udawalawe reservoir, the park features open plains, grasslands, and forests, with the reservoir serving as a central water source that attracts a large number of elephants year-round. In addition to elephants, visitors can see animals like water buffalos, deer, and leopards, as well as rich birdlife, and can visit the Elephant Transit Home for orphaned elephants.

Elephant Transit Home (ETH)

The Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home (ETH) is a rehabilitation center in Sri Lanka for orphaned elephant calves that are raised with minimal human contact until they can be released back into the wild. Operated by the Wildlife Conservation Department of Sri Lanka, it is designed to help young elephants orphaned due to human-wildlife conflict, poaching, or other causes, to thrive and reintegrate into their natural habitat. Visitors can observe the elephants during scheduled feeding times, which happen every three hours from 9 am to 6 pm, but cannot have physical contact with them.