Pinnawella Elephant Centre, established in February 1975 by the Wildlife Conservation Department - Sri Lanka, was taken over by the National Zoological Gardens at Dehiwela in 1983.

An important attraction is bottle-feeding the calves. Each one gets seven giant-sized bottles of milk plus five other meals a day.

Bottle feeding may be seen at 9.15 a.m., 1.15 p.m. and again after 4 p.m. Adult animals are tethered for the night in their stalls between 4.30p.m. and 6 p.m. at which time they are given their evening feed of coconut, kitul (palm sugar), tamarind, jak leaves, some logs, plus a mixture of maize, rice bran, powdered sesame (gingelly) seeds and minerals.