Wild elephant rampage on resettled villagers continues unabated in Batticaloa (Sri Lanka)

The systematic ignorance by genocidal Sri Lanka to arrest the menace caused by wild elephants that go on rampage killing and maiming resettled Tamils in former LTTE-administered areas in Paduvaankarai region of Batticaloa, is an intentional tactic to chase Tamils permanently away from their native villages and colonise Paduvaankarai with Sinhalese, Tamil civil officials in Batticaloa District Secretariat told TamilNet on Friday. In the meantime, Yogarasa Ganesh the chairman of Rural Development Society (RDS) in Katchatkodi, a village situated in Paddippazhai division of Paduvaankarai region, confirmed that there has been no action despite repeated appeals through GS, DS officers and the provincial councillors. The SL authorities were giving better protection to Sinhala settlers in the nearby villages, the RDS chairman said when contacted by TamilNet.

“There were no attacks by wild elephants during the times of war. In fact, people were eager to spot an elephant and the elephants, which used to visit the villages occasionally, didn’t cause any harm. But, now the wild elephants come in groups, kill, maim and cause extensive damage to the properties,” Mr Yogarasa says.

The attacking breed of wild elephants have been brought from jungles in the Sinhala South and deployed in the jungles close to Tamil villages by the SL Wild Life Department. Colombo, serving the interests of powers locked in the geopolitics, was re-locating the animals from the jungles in South to build ports, airports and townships there.

“The children are unable to go to schools. The earning men find themselves in a dilemma. The men are unable to stay with their families to provide necessary security, becuase they have to go outside for daily wage work. Recently, a family with a pregnant woman was slain by the elephants in Vellaave’li division,” the chairman of the RDS in Kachchatkodi said.

In a recent protest, the villagers in the nearby Vellave’li division laid siege to the DS office and blocked the roads demanding immediate action. The Sri Lankan guards were telling the villagers that there were only one or two wild elephant behind those attacks and claimed that they have taken action to relocate them. But, the attack continues. It is not a matter of one or two elephants as they say, Mr Yogarasa says.

At least 26 people have been slain and more than 40 wounded in the villages near Kachchatkodi after the war ended. 20 houses have been destroyed in Kachchatkodi village alone.

There are flocks of wild elephants that go on rampage. We have no idea how all these wild elephants ended up here, says the RDS chairman.

The Sri Lankan military and the Sinhala paramilitary, known as ‘homeguards’, provide security to Sinhala settlers who have colonised the border area between Ampaa’rai and Batticaloa districts.

However, the ‘homeguards’ present at some of the gates along the jungle border of the Tamil villages are only watching the gates and they are unable to contain the intruding wild elephants.

The SL ministries in Colombo aim to colonise the Tamil villages along the borders between Ampaa’rai, Polonnaruwa and Batticaloa districts.

The deployment of wild elephants should be seen in context of the systematic programme of driving Tamils away from their rural villages, Tamil civil officials at Batticaloa District Secretariat told TamilNet.

The Sinhala settlers into the border areas of Paduvaankarai have come from Poththuvil, Arugam Bay and Uhana in Ampaa’rai district as well as from the distant districts of Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Hambantota. Many of the Sinhala settlers are families of SL soldiers.

“It seems like Colombo has just replaced its artillery unit that targeted Tamil civilians during the war with a new kind of tank force comprising these wild elephants,” commented a Tamil academic watching the unfolding demographic genocide in the country of Eezham Tamils.

There were 350 Tamil families in Kachchatkodi village before the end of war the East in 2007. Now, there are only 62 families living in the village, according to RDS chairman Yogarasa.

The Tamil families are forced to consider leaving Kachchatkodi, Mr Yogarasa told TamilNet.