Sri Lanka's indigenous community laments for a cemetery

As the world commemorated the World Indigenous People's Day on August 09, an isolated community of indigenous Vedda people of Sri Lanka complained that their traditional cemetery was bulldozed by an unscrupulous businessman.


The Vedda people of Danigala generation were displaced due to the Galoya development project in 1939 and since then they lived in Rathugala in the Ampara district.
Rathugala Vedda leader Suda Wannialeththo says that they had used this land as their cemetery since the resettlement. However, recently a person claimed the rights for this land, he said. The land owner who has a 14-acre land adjacent to the cemetery has claimed the ownership of the cemetery land and cleared it to set up a farm.
Vedda people have shared this cemetery with a number of other villages. The claimant for the land says he has a license issued by the state for this land, said the Vedda leader.