Along the edge of the receding Minneriya Tank is the single biggest gathering of wild Asian Elephants in the world. This gathering takes place in August/September of each year during the dry season when a large area of grassland is exposed by the falling water levels.

Elephants survive well on a diet of grass which they harvest with their trunks. The trunk is swished from side to side like a pendulum with the tip grabbing tufts of grass which are torn off by the sideways action. Grabbing and vertical pulling of the grass tufts would simply uproot and destroy the grass whereas the sideways mowing action conserves the rootstock from which new shoots sprout.