Sri Lanka’s Minister of Environment Dammika Patabendi has announced that 101,762.75 acres of land in the Vanni are to be released from state control, in what the government framed as a corrective measure after decades of military seizure and bureaucratic mismanagement.
Speaking at the Vavuniya District Secretariat Auditorium, Patabendi claimed that successive governments had “mistakenly” absorbed villages, farms, schools and even hospitals into forest reserves during past GPS surveys. He pledged that lands “legitimately belonging to the people” would now be released in an orderly manner.
Also in attendance were Deputy Minister Anton Jayakody, Member of Parliament M. Jegatheeswaran, District Secretary Sarath Chandra, divisional secretaries and other officials. The meeting discussed the establishment of a botanical garden in Madura Nagar and an eco-park in Vannivilankulam.
For decades, forcibly displaced Tamils across the Vanni have fought to reclaim their homes and farmlands, with Sri Lankan authorities frequently citing environmental regulations as justification for withholding access. Human rights organisations and local campaigners have long accused the state of using forest preservation policies as a cover for land grabs in the North-East.
The announcement of 101,762 acres to be returned highlights both the scale of dispossession and the state’s long-standing refusal to address the land crisis faced by Tamils. Although parts of the North and East have seen limited handovers in recent years, families remain under pressure as large tracts of land continue to be occupied or designated for state projects, while the military maintains a heavy presence across the region.
More than sixteen years after the Mullivaikkal genocide, thousands of Tamil families remain displaced. Campaigners stress that the government’s selective release of land, often tied to development schemes and subject to surveillance, falls short of full accountability for years of forced displacement.
Padapendi’s reminder that Sri Lanka must preserve 32 per cent forest cover by 2030 was met with scepticism from activists, who noted that the same policy had long been used to deny Tamils their ancestral lands. They argue that the latest pledge reflects a familiar pattern of delay and political manipulation, with the state framing the return of land as a benevolent gesture rather than the restoration of rights. There was no timeline offered on the land release as of yet.
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