Elephant Surangi, 25, gave birth on Tuesday at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka to twins, two healthy little males, a rare event in captivity, officials said.

This is the first birth of twin baby elephants in captivity in Sri Lanka since 1941, according to expert Jayantha Jayewardene.

“The two baby elephants and the mother are doing well,” Renuka Bandaranaike, director of the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, the country's principal, which is home to 81 elephants, told Renuka Bandaranaike.

“The babies (elephants) are relatively small, but they are healthy,” she said.

For Surangi, who had already given birth to a small colt in 2009, it was the second birth.

Sri Lanka's main elephant orphanage recorded a rare birth of twins Tuesday as a 25-year-old female named Surangi delivered healthy male calves https://t.co/yfDssQGyoz #Pinnawala pic.twitter.com/32N0puiD1r

- AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 31, 2021

Strict measures to protect animals from abuse

The father, Pandu, 17, is also one of 81 residents of the Orphanage, founded in 1975 to care for stray wild elephants. This institution, a major tourist attraction in the country, has been closed to visitors under restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 epidemic. In 2020, wildlife conservation officials reported that the first twin birth of elephant calves in the wild in Sri Lanka was spotted in Minneriya National Park in the east of the island.

The government announced at the end of August strict measures to protect and preserve from mistreatment these animals, which are considered sacred in this predominantly Buddhist country.

Many wealthy Sri Lankans, including Buddhist monks, own elephants as pets, but cases of abuse are widely reported.

The new law provides for the confiscation of the animal by the state and up to three years in prison in the event of an offense.

Sri Lanka has around 200 domesticated elephants, and 7,500 living in the wild.

Capturing wild elephants is a crime punishable by death, but prosecution is rare.

Animal rights activists estimate that more than 40 baby elephants have been stolen from national parks to domesticate them in the past 15 years.

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