An orphanage for elephants has been set up by the Department of of National Zoological Gardens at Pinnawala in 1975, which is situated on the Kegalle - Rambukkana road 13 KM from Kegalle town.

Tourism was not the main reason and was established mainly to house young elephants who find themselves displaced and lost from their natural habitats for various reasons like elephant human conflict, environment changes due by development projects, abandoned by their parents when searching foods and fall into pits or ravines. Some of the elephants are found diseased or wounded. They are brought to the orphanage for treatment and to be taken care of.

It was established and several animals brought here at the inception are now matured enough for breeding, which is the ultimate aim of the institution. Sri Lanka Trekking plan to start regular daily transport from Kandy to Pinnawala elephant orphanage.