India, Sept. 10 -- In July, while visiting Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Rambukkana in Sri Lanka, I was invited to the picturesque Pinnawala Elephant Dung Paper Products workshop nearby. There, on the concrete floor were piles of paper, glass-fronted cabinets of notebooks, some machinery, and people busily working at tables. It was an unexpected place to find oneself after a visit to an elephant orphanage - and an even more unexpected way to begin looking at what happens to the enormous amounts of dung produced there.

"First, I will show you the elephant poo," said owner of the enterprise, Nimal Pilalcarathna, who explains that the dung is first dried in the sun for two or three days to get rid of the smell. What's left behind contains...