What exactly is the Elephant Transit Home in Udawalawe?

The Elephant Transit Home (ETH) is a well-known wildlife rehabilitation facility that rescues and tends to orphaned elephant calves until they are old enough to be released back into the wild. Differing from some controversial visitor locations, the ETH keeps human presence low, and they do not permit guests to touch, ride, or bathe the animals.

Backed by the Born Free Foundation, the place works strictly around protection and welfare. Guests may watch the elephants only from a raised viewing platform during their planned milk-feeding sessions. Those sessions happen every three hours. When the calves grow to around five years old and can live independently, they get fitted with a radio collar and are then moved into the nearby Udawalawe National Park.