During your road trip Kataragama temple or if you pass through this area, you will encounter some elephants in the region along the road that are waiting to be fed. A lot of people travel here to offer prayers and other ways of offerings to the “Kataragama Deviyo.”
This particular herd seems to be a friendly one with so many young elephants being there. So people naturally want to pet them or get close to recording themselves feeding elephants so they can share with their friends in social media. The herd seems to be calm and less aggressive as they are well used to humans in the area. They have experienced kindness and friendliness of humans, and they do not take them as a threat. However, these wild animals are highly unpredictable.
Many people who visit the Kataragama temple also visit other areas around, and they are all kind and generous to offer food to our beloved Sri Lankan elephants. In this situation, you can hear people shouting at the couple that got down to give bananas to the elephant. So people are also generous enough to bring fresh fruits with them to give to these elephants. However, it is a punishable offense to feed elephants along the road as it can pose threats to you and people around you.
More on Elephants:
In the beautiful island of Sri Lanka, Elephants roam the streets and through village areas freely in many regions of the country. The small island nation is full of elephants that are loved by most of the inhabitants of the island. Most educated in the country are continually fighting corruption, and animal abuse, especially towards the treasures that elephants are to the state as Sri Lankan elephants are known as the largest and the strongest among Asian elephants.
However, around farming villages where elephants raid crops, many conflicts are happening that have caused casualties to both sides. They have set a lot of fences and electric fences with barriers around many villages and farmlands around national parks and many massive forest reserves. These elephants often run into traps and wells placed along with farms for water supply.
