Wanniyala-Aetto Evicted
Dams, timber interests and National Parks extinguish native title in Sri Lanka
Mar 13, 2007
Sri Lanka’s Wanniyala-Aetto aboriginal people lived for eighteen thousand years on their traditional lands. They survived invasions by Sinhalese, Tamil, Portugese, Dutch and British colonials.
Then in 1983 the Sri Lankan government evicted them when they created the Maduru Ova National Park. This was in breach of Sri Lanka’s own constitution, as well as several treaties to which they had committed.
Like most other displaced indigenous communities all over the world, the Wanniyala-Aetto are subjected to outrageous human rights abuses. They are now on the verge of extinction, with only two and a half thousand surviving members (50% of the original population), whose numbers are steadily dwindling due to the usual scourge of colonial disease, poverty and violence. This is exacerbated by the fact that the families have been broken up and “resettled” in separate areas, and now depend on soul-destroying passive welfare for survival.
Most of the Wanniyala-Aetto's best land and most important sacred sites have already been submerged beneath the Gal Oya Dam, which was funded by the World Bank. 11,000 hectares of their remaining forest have been clear-cut for timber. The National Park represents the extinguishment of native title on the last corner of their homelands.
Read more about the way conservation is used to extinguish native title.
