A new collaborative effort between the Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts, John Keells Foundation and the Centre for Conservation and Research was initiated in 2014

Objective:
Breaking new ground by developing elephant viewing based tourism through integration of research and tourism for the benefit of both fields, whereby individual elephants are identified based on their morphological characters and their life stories contributing towards the long term conservation of the Asian elephants and enabling tourists to obtain a unique, enriching and more personal experience.

Target Group:
The project will track some of the smaller elephant herds in the North Central Province by using high tech satellite collars throughout the year even after the Gathering disperses as a second phase of the study to understand the seasonal movement of the elephant herds that are part of the larger gathering. Individual elephants are identified and followed by naturalists at the Cinnamon Hotels using GPS and Satellite technology.

Impact:
Web based information dissemination enables the lives of identified elephants to be followed even after a tourist’s visit. Demographic, health and behavioral data is also collected, which provides baseline data on the populations, enabling monitoring of their well being and contribute to scientific knowledge on Asian Elephants.