Sudu Aliya (‘white elephant’) is a female white elephant of Yala, the first recorded in Sri Lanka and described by researchers as the only one known living free in the wild. She was first seen as a newborn at Heen Wewa in Yala Block I in 1993, and was later seen at Diganwala, outside the park, and at Mahaseelawa Wewa and Kotabendi Wewa in 2012. She is light tan with white body hair and a black tail tuft, so she is not a full albino; chena farmers called her ‘Cheena Aliya’, and a Yala herd, the Sudu Aliya group, is named after her.