Our lands are under threat, say Tamils in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province
The Hindu
Systematic effort to change Tamil areas’ demographics, alleges Batticaloa MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam.
Over the last few months, farmers of Mavadi Odai in Sri Lanka’s eastern Batticaloa district frequently spotted something crop up on their land overnight — a border stone they had not planted. “The Forest Department people come and put their stones when we are asleep, and then claim the land to be theirs,” says Marimuthu Raveendrakumar, 51, speaking of a growing insecurity among residents over land that they returned to only in recent years, after years of displacement during the civil war. According to many in Batticaloa, the land where Tamil communities have resided and farmed for generations, is increasingly under threat from different governmental bodies that oversee agriculture, conservation and archaeology. The 36 Tamil families in Mr. Raveendrakumar’s village which lacks motorable roads — it takes over 45 minutes to cover a 3-km stretch to reach here — do small-scale farming for a living. A plot of land is all they have assuring them of a livelihood. A majority owns under 5 acres. “But every day, the Forest Department is claiming a new patch of land here to be theirs,” he says.More Related News
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