Udawalawe National Park, Sri Lanka is one of the best places in Asia for watching large herds of Asian Elephants, the pachyderms in the wild. Udawalawe is an important habitat for water birds too.

Elephant Transit Home (ETH), where the orphan wild elephants are treated, raised and released back to the wild, also is located at Udawalawe. Visitors to this place can observe how the elephants are taken care of, twice a day. Total number of orphaned elephants exceeds 40, of which most of them are calves and juveniles. The animals become matured enough to live on their own, are released back to the wild. Park authorities keep constant vigilance on the newly released animals, until they get used to the new life in the wild.