COLOMBO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Two baby elephants under five years old were taken away from their mothers, sparking anger in a world-renown elephant orphanage in central Sri Lanka, a local English newspaper said on Monday.

    The Island said the two baby tuskers were forcibly separated from their mothers by the Diyawadana Nilame Pradeep Nilanga Dela, the chief custodian of the Temple of the Tooth, on Saturday night at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, about 80 km northeast of the capital Colombo.

    Despite protests by some officials at the elephant orphanage, after hours of battle, the Diyawadana Nilame who was supported by nearly 50 persons including police and Army personnel finally managed to take the two elephants to the central town of Kandy.

    "I consider it as one of darkest hours in my career as an employee at Pinnawala to witness the struggle between the two mothers who were heavily chained, when their babies were taken away. We boast our cultural and religious values but we continue to be inhuman when it comes to dealing with animals," a spokesman from the elephant orphanage was quoted by the paper as saying.

    Officials at the elephant orphanage said that it was not customary to separate baby elephants who depend on their mother's milk.

    "If it is to be separated from its mother, the elephant has to be over five years old," one official was quoted by the paper as saying.

    Officials from the Department of National Zoological Gardens said one of the elephants is two years and six months old while the other is two years and 10 months old.

    They said the Diyawadana Nilame had the permission of the cabinet to take elephants from the orphanage to participate in the annual Maha Perahara at Kandy in the future.

    The orphanage is very popular among Sri Lankan and foreign tourists with its main attraction of watching the herd socially interacting, bathing and playing from the tall river bank.

    The orphanage was originally founded in 1975 in order to care and protect the many orphaned elephants found in the jungle and now it is also a breeding place for elephants.

    There are 86 elephants in the orphanage as of now and 50 elephants were born there.