The Gathering

The Gathering of Elephants in Minneriya National Park is an annual event that happens this time of the year from July to September.

The water becomes scarce for the animals & they all migrate together in search of it. During the evening you can see about 200 - 250 elephants converge into one small area to drink water. The sight is a breath taking one. We saw about 150 during our game drive.

We saw some new tuskers in the park as well, who were not there during last year. There're only very few tuskers in the entire country & I saw 3 of them on that day.

Half way into the safari, it started pouring heavily & we thought that was the end of it. But we saw something that we didn't expect. About 40 elephants in one herd, started playing with each other, rolling on the ground, etc since it was a very warmly welcomed rain for them.

Another year of Elephant Gathering gone... but the spirit to visit Minneriya again, still remains, since you would always find something new in every visit.