Dear visitor, A fantastic day from Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage (PEO)! We are so fascinated by your satisfying visit, and we extend our heartfelt gratitude for your perfect rating. Indeed, elephant bathing at the riverside is stunning scenery with the elephants and its lush surroundings. Elephants in our care are taken to the river twice a day for their daily water requirement, and visitors can observe their natural behaviors, such as bathing, grazing, and interacting with each other while fulfilling their daily water requirement. Once again, thank you very much for highlighting the bathing event, Thank you. From, PEO Team.

Dear Kenza Thank you very much for visiting Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage (PEO) and sharing your constructive feedback with us. We are sorry to hear about the unwelcoming experience and we certainly take the highlighted areas into consideration as we strive to improve each and every visit. When focusing on your first point, it should be noted that many outside individuals sell fruits to visitors to feed elephants, which is prohibited at the riverside. The riverside of the elephant bath does not belong to PEO and is public property. Some outside brokers and sellers enter the riverside and carry out these illegal activities. We urge you not to assist in that process. The veterinarian-approved and formulated diets are given to the elephants in our care to ensure their health and wellbeing, and please avoid giving additional food as it may be harmful to their health. We are sorry to say that we had designed many events for the visitors earlier. Especially the "fruit feeding event" and the "Jambo bathing event" for the visitors have been temporarily suspended due to the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic situation and related health regulations in the country, and these measures have been taken to protect elephants from these diseases. However, we have already taken steps to provide those features to visitors in order for them to have wonderful and memorable experiences. We have about 70 elephants, but there are some social conflicts between them and they cannot be allowed to roam all at once. We, therefore, divide them into herds and individuals and care for them accordingly. Elephants are in our care in semi-wild conditions; they are large in size, powerful, and unpredictable wild animals that have evolved strong “fight or flight” responses in order to cope with perceived threats. So if they get panicked, it could be a threat to the safety of humans and properties. We must always ensure the safety of visitors, and in some unavoidable circumstances, we are forced to chain some elephants. We assure you that we treat these elephants properly in this facility, and we have their huge tusks. We pay a high price for it and maintain all of the necessary facilities. We follow international standards for elephant welfare as well. We hope you will understand our effort to conserve these species, and we warmly welcome you once again to the PEO in the future for a happy visit. Thank you. Best regards, From PEO Team

Dear visitor, A fantastic day from Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage! Thank you very much for your constructive feedback and for taking the time to write to us. We are sorry to learn of your review as you are not satisfied with your visit with us. Therefore, I would like to explain the points you have raised on us. When concerning your first point, Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage is a full government institute in Sri Lanka. We conserve about 75 Asian elephants, and we incur such an entry fee as we have to bear the cost for animal feed, medicine, and health care and maintenance. Therefore, we have to charge such an entry fee. Also, the finance ministry decides the entry fees for government institutions according to the maintenance cost. We are not in a position to change it. As well as we don’t abuse these elephants in the facility, and our main purpose is the conservation and breeding of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus maximus), providing care and shelter to orphaned elephants that were stranded in the wild due to many reasons. We are compelled to chain up only some aggressive bull elephants in the facility, especially in the musth period. Other cow elephants and juveniles are kept apart without chaining most of the day. Also, elephants in veterinary care sometimes have to be chained. It is further glad to inform you that we have already taken many steps to minimize the usage of chains by chain free-born free concept. Finally, as a government institute, we can say that we are playing a greater role in elephant conservation in Sri Lanka. Thank you. From PEO Team

Dear Nicolash A fantastic day from Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage! Thank you for visiting Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage & sending your humble response to us. We are sorry to say, due to the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic situation and related health regulations, we are unable to facilitate animal feeding or any other special event or activities during this time. But we hope to bring back to you the “fruit feeding event” and the “Jambo bathing event” as soon as possible at the PEO. Also, we have officially banned the sale of fruit by outside individuals, and we are sorry for the inconvenience that is being caused at the riverside. Therefore, we kindly request all visitors not to feed the elephants the food provided by such individuals. It is not good for the health of animals. Thank you very much, and we welcome you back to the institute in the near future. From PEO Team

Dear Nikob, A fantastic day from Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage ! Thank you very much for visiting Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage and your feedback. It is sorry to read your feedback, as you are not having a good attitude about us. However, this is not a well-organized business. This place was initiated to provide care and shelter to the elephants who were stranded in the wild due to many reasons and at present, it has expanded its service on the breeding and conservation of Asian elephants for the preservation of the species too. Further, this is a government institute, under the Department of National Zoological Gardens in Sri Lanka and the government allocates all the money to maintain this place. Actually, it is not an easy task to maintain these large creatures and it cost a lot more than you think. As well as all the revenue generated will be directed to main government accounts. According to your review, we assume that you have seen our sick elephants under the ongoing veterinary treatment in the enclosures. Especially they are in different health condition and when the veterinary practices, we are compelled to chain them up for minimizing the harm of unrest at the situation. In addition, the reason for their uncomfortable behaviors is their multiple health conditions. As a dedicated institute for the elephant conservation, we always provide elephants a highest-level welfare and our veterinary doctors are on alert their mental and physical health condition. Further, bullhook is just a guiding tool to drive elephants to the direction the mahout want and it’s not a torturing equipment as you suggest. Especially at the riverside, they need to be well managed and Mahouts use it is only used in case of an emergency. It further ensures your safety and animal safety too. We hope you understand our efforts on keep up the elephants in the facility. Once again thank you for your feedback and we welcome you back to PEO in near future. From,

Dear visitor, A fantastic day from Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage! Thank you very much for taking time to write us. We are disappointed to read that your stay with us fell short expectation. However, we are a dedicated institution for the conservation of Asian elephants in Sri Lanka and we do fallow the international standards for elephant management in this facility. Especially, we highly concern these requirements such as space requirement, enclosure design, nutrition, reproduction, enrichment, veterinary care to give the elephants a quality living environment in the facility. When considering their enclosures, they are designed with all the facilities to meet the basic needs and elephants are generally kept only at night in those enclosures. Further, the elephants that you mentioned in your review are our sick elephants that are under the ongoing veterinary treatment in the facility according to our assumption. Except for those elephants, the other elephants are spending their time in the free roaming area as well as elephant-bathing place at the riverside at the same time. Actually, as they are captive elephants, they have an eating schedule, which based on veterinary recommendation. We provide them food on a regular basis and they generally have their main meal at night. Chains are using especially at the veterinary treatments and certain uncontrolled bull elephants are kept in chains to limit their violent behaviors for some extent in the facility to ensure the safety of visitors and animals too. Further, our caretakers use a traditional tool, which called ankus or bullhook to manage these land largest creatures in the facility. This has been used for many thousand years in Sri Lanka as an elephant has a great history in the history. So our mahouts know the limitations of the use of bull hook without any harm to the animals. Finally, we assure you that we strive to protect them with maximum living conditions and work towards to prevent these endangered species form their future extinction as well as protecting the biodiversity of Sri Lanka too. Thank you, From, PEO Team.

Dear visitor, A fantastic day from Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage! Thank you very much for your constructive feedback. We are saddened by the disappointment of this visit. Further, we sincerely apologize for the unwelcoming experience you had with us. We being a government institution do not allow to accept any kind of tips and rewards. Therefore, please be refrain from doing that. We have been briefed on this and have installed awareness boards in the premises too. In addition, your comment will certainly be considered as areas of improvements. Thank you for visiting Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage and we welcome you back to the PEO in the future. Thank you. From, PEO Team.