Colombo continues to deploy Wildlife Department as agent of Sinhalicisatoin

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 June 2015, 23:48 GMT]
Wildlife Department officials operating along the border of Batticaloa-Polonnaruwa have become the chief operatives deployed to drive Eehzam Tamils away from their villages in Paduvaan-karai, say civil sources at the District Secretariat of Batticaloa. The ‘wildlife’ operatives have been encouraging Sinhala colonisers to run illegal breweries to sustain their needs as well as to maintain the violent conduct of the ‘home guards’ Sinhala paramilitary. In the meantime, around 70 Tamil villagers have so far lost their lives due to the uncontained attacks by wild elephants in Paduvaan-karai area alone.

Around 100 people have been injured and the wild elephants that go on rampage on Tamil villages have destroyed at least 500 houses, the civil sources said.

The number of wild elephants has doubled in the jungles along Batticaloa-Polonnaruwa border since year 2000.

Around 2,000 wild elephants have been brought from the South into the jungles along Batticaloa-Polonnaruw in recent years. The area is barely enough for 2,000 elephants. But, there are around 4,000 elephants in the area, the sources further said.

The Sinhala colonisers who engage in slash-and-burn cultivation have drastically reduced the jungle area, causing the wild elephants to enter the border villages within Batticaloa district.

Chronology: