Tag: civil war

Small islands don't have big animals- goes the saying, not actually so for Sri Lanka. The little emerald island with population less than 17 of Indian states has a big population of elephants. And actually Sri Lankan elephants are largest among the Asian elephants and only two species of African elephants are bigger than Sri Lankan elephants. But Sri Lankan elephants had their share of tragedy because of civil war. Pinnawala elephant orphanage came in handy during that time. Although it was established in 1975 to take care of the orphaned or abandoned baby elephants found in the wild, but many injured elephants in the civil war also found shelter there. Orphanage earned its most popularity during that time. Pinnawala is known to have a largest herd of captive elephants in the world.