Elephant Island

A short way south of India lies Elephant Island: Sri Lanka has the most dense population of Asian elephants in the world.

When it comes to getting heavy work done in remote areas of the country, no machine beats a well-trained working elephant. Several hundred of them are still being used, most of them in the tropical rain forests.

Yet the Sri Lankians do not only rely on their elephants for special work - they also worship them: Once a year, in the full moon week of August, the old royal town of Kandy comes to glory again. At this time, the people of Sri Lanka celebrate their biggest, oldest, and most colourful buddhist ceremony: The Kandy Perahera is a spectacular temple procession that has been celebrated for almost two thousand years. In several nights, the most magnificent elephants of the country emerge from the dark of the jungle into the mysterious light of the torches. Splendidly decorated, they parade majestically among a multitude of dancers, to the ceaselessly pulsating beat of the temple drums.

American scientists found out that Elephants are very sensitive. Without the company of friends and relatives, they fall ill, and lose the ability to breed offspring. For a long time, wild elephants that got separated from their herd were condemned to die - until scientists founded the orphanage in Pinnawela and the wildlife orphanage further south.

There, ailing single elephants are grouped together in new herds, and miraculously cure themselves: When watching the peaceful Pinnawela herd taking their daily bath in the river, it is hard to imagine the troubled past of some of their members, such as Sanka: abused by his master, he escaped and killed 13 people in the woods for panic fear of renewed captivity, before he was caught again.

Length: 1 X 30 mins. or longer formats (3 X 30 mins. possible).