Midweek Review

Why future of elephant will define Sri Lanka’s future

Published

4 weeks ago

2026/08/12

Sahan Weerasooriya

The last great landscape

by Dilum Alagiyawanna

Civilisation shaped by forests,water and elephants

Every civilisation is remembered not only for the monuments it built, but also for the landscapes it chose to preserve.

Sri Lanka’s ancient reservoirs, majestic stupas and remarkable irrigation systems continue to inspire admiration centuries after they were constructed. Equally remarkable, though often overlooked, is another inheritance that has endured alongside them.

Across the country’s dry-zone forests, elephant herds still move through landscapes that have sustained both wildlife and human communities for millennia, reminding us that Sri Lanka’s history has always been inseparable from the natural world.

Long before ecology became a recognised scientific discipline, the architects of Sri Lanka’s ancient hydraulic civilisation understood a truth that modern environmental science has since reaffirmed: forests, water and human prosperity are intimately connected. The vast network of reservoirs and canals that transformed the dry zone into one of the world’s greatest agricultural civilisations depended upon healthy forested catchments to regulate rainfall, protect watersheds and replenish water supplies. Those same forests were home to elephants, whose movements helped shape dynamic ecosystems, long before the rise of Anuradhapura.

The relationship between people and elephants was never without challenges, but for centuries both occupied the same broad landscapes. Seasonal cultivation, extensive forest cover and relatively low human population densities created conditions that allowed coexistence to evolve naturally. The lesson from history is not that conflict never existed, but that healthy landscapes made coexistence possible.

Against this historical backdrop, World Elephant Day, on 12 August, should become more than an annual observance. It should invite the nation to reflect upon the future of the landscapes that have shaped both its civilisation and its wildlife.

The future of the Sri Lankan elephant is not merely a wildlife issue.

It is a question about the future of the nation itself.

The Sri Lankan elephant (Elephas maximus maximus) is one of the island’s most distinctive natural treasures. Found nowhere else in the world, this endemic subspecies represents a unique evolutionary lineage that has adapted to Sri Lanka’s diverse landscapes over thousands of years. It is also one of the country’s most important keystone species, playing a vital ecological role that extends far beyond its own survival.

As elephants move through forests and scrublands, they disperse seeds, create natural clearings, maintain grasslands and shape habitats that support countless other plants and animals. Their presence helps sustain ecological processes upon which healthy forests depend. Protecting elephants, therefore, means protecting entire ecosystems.

Those ecosystems provide benefits that reach every citizen, whether they live in a rural village or an urban centre. Forests occupied by elephants regulate river flows, protect reservoirs, reduce soil erosion, store carbon and strengthen resilience against climate change. They safeguard biodiversity while supporting agriculture, tourism and water security.

Seen in this context, elephant conservation is not simply about preserving a charismatic species.

It is about protecting the natural infrastructure that sustains Sri Lanka’s economy and society.

Yet this relationship has become increasingly fragile.

Human-Elephant Conflict has emerged as one of Sri Lanka’s most complex environmental and rural development challenges. Every year, lives are lost, crops are destroyed and hundreds of elephants die through preventable causes. Behind these statistics lie profound social and economic consequences for farming communities living at the interface between people and wildlife.

Scientific research has transformed our understanding of this conflict. Around 70 percent of Sri Lanka’s wild elephants live outside formally protected areas, occupying landscapes that include secondary forests, scrublands and traditional agricultural areas. This is not evidence that elephants have abandoned protected areas. Rather, it reflects the long-standing ecological reality that elephants have always depended upon wider landscapes extending beyond national parks.

The challenge, therefore, is not simply to protect elephants within isolated reserves.

It is to manage shared landscapes more intelligently.

This requires a fundamental shift in thinking. Instead of viewing Human-Elephant Conflict solely as a wildlife problem, Sri Lanka must recognise it as a challenge of landscape planning, governance and sustainable development. The question is no longer how to separate people from elephants completely, but how to design landscapes where both can thrive safely.

That shift in thinking forms the foundation of a new conservation philosophy, one that offers Sri Lanka an extraordinary opportunity to become a global leader in human-elephant coexistence. It is a vision rooted in the island’s own history, strengthened by modern science and guided by the belief that conserving elephants ultimately means conserving the landscapes that sustain us all.

A new conservation philosophy for a changing Sri Lanka

For much of the past century, the conservation of elephants has been shaped by a philosophy of separation. National parks were established, electric fences erected and elephants translocated or driven away from areas where conflict occurred.

While these measures have often been necessary to protect both people and wildlife, experience has shown that they cannot, by themselves, provide a lasting solution.

The reason is increasingly clear.

Human-Elephant Conflict is not fundamentally a problem of elephant behaviour. It is a consequence of how landscapes are planned, managed and transformed.

Elephants are intelligent, highly adaptable animals with extensive home ranges that have evolved over centuries. They continue to move along traditional routes in search of food, water and shelter, regardless of administrative boundaries. As forests become fragmented by settlements, roads, commercial agriculture and other forms of development, these ancient pathways increasingly intersect with human activities, creating conflict that neither elephants nor rural communities seek.

This understanding has prompted a profound shift in conservation thinking.

Instead of asking how elephants can be confined within protected areas, scientists are increasingly asking how landscapes can be managed to accommodate both people and wildlife safely. This approach, known as landscape-scale conservation, recognises that biodiversity cannot be sustained within isolated protected areas alone. It depends upon maintaining ecological connectivity across wider landscapes where forests, agriculture, water resources and human settlements coexist.

Every landscape that can sustain elephants is also a landscape capable of sustaining people. Sri Lanka is uniquely positioned to embrace this approach.

Unlike many elephant-range countries, the majority of Sri Lanka’s wild elephants live outside protected areas, occupying secondary forests, scrublands, village commons and traditional agricultural landscapes. Rather than viewing this as a conservation failure, it should be recognised as evidence of the remarkable adaptability of the Sri Lankan elephant and the island’s long history of coexistence.

This adaptability may prove to be one of Sri Lanka’s greatest conservation advantages.

At the same time, Sri Lanka is undergoing a demographic transition that distinguishes it from much of Asia. Population growth has slowed significantly and is expected to stabilise before gradually declining during the coming decades. While pressures on land will remain considerable, the country has a unique opportunity to plan future landscapes more strategically than nations facing continuing rapid population growth.

This presents a rare opportunity.

With enlightened land-use planning and science-based conservation, Sri Lanka could become one of the world’s foremost examples of long-term coexistence between people and free-ranging Asian elephants.

A key element of this emerging philosophy is the concept of Elephant Managed Ranges.

Rather than attempting to exclude elephants from every human-modified landscape, Elephant Managed Ranges recognise that many areas outside protected forests have supported elephants for generations and can continue to do so under appropriate management. The objective is neither unrestricted elephant movement nor unrestricted human expansion. It is the careful management of shared landscapes to minimise conflict while maintaining ecological integrity.

Within these landscapes, community-managed electric fencing can protect villages and cultivated land without unnecessarily restricting elephant movements through surrounding habitats. Habitat restoration, ecological corridors and better land-use planning can further reduce conflict while allowing wildlife to continue performing its vital ecological functions.

This approach places local communities at the centre of conservation.

Farmers are not simply victims of Human-Elephant Conflict. They possess generations of practical knowledge about elephant movements, seasonal patterns and local landscapes. Their experience, combined with scientific research, should guide future conservation strategies.

Conservation succeeds when rural communities become active partners rather than passive recipients of government interventions.

Modern technology can further strengthen this partnership.

Satellite imagery now enables continuous monitoring of forests and land-use change. GPS telemetry provides detailed information on elephant movements and habitat use. Artificial intelligence can analyse large ecological datasets to identify emerging conflict hotspots and improve early-warning systems. Drone technology and remote sensing can assist Wildlife officers in monitoring inaccessible areas and responding more efficiently to incidents.

Technology alone, however, is not the solution.

Its value lies in supporting informed decision-making, based upon reliable scientific evidence. Effective conservation still depends upon strong institutions, interdisciplinary collaboration and the willingness to integrate research into public policy.

Climate change adds another dimension to this challenge.

Sri Lanka is already experiencing more frequent climatic extremes, including prolonged droughts, intense rainfall, floods and increasingly variable seasonal weather influenced by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, the Indian Ocean Dipole and fluctuations in the monsoon systems. These changes affect water availability, agricultural productivity and wildlife distribution across the island.

Healthy forests provide one of the country’s most effective natural defences against these impacts. They protect watersheds, regulate streamflow, reduce soil erosion and maintain ecological resilience during periods of climatic stress. The same forests that sustain elephants also safeguard reservoirs, rivers and agricultural systems upon which millions of Sri Lankans depend.

Protecting elephant landscapes, therefore, strengthens the country’s resilience to climate change while conserving biodiversity and securing essential ecosystem services.

The future of the Sri Lankan elephant will not be secured through fences alone.

It will depend upon whether Sri Lanka has the wisdom to manage its landscapes as interconnected living systems, where forests, water, wildlife and people are recognised as partners in a shared future.

From conservation to national vision

The future of the Sri Lankan elephant will ultimately be determined not by wildlife management alone, but by the choices Sri Lanka makes about its own future.

Around the world, governments are beginning to recognise that nature is not simply something to be protected. It is an essential component of national wealth. Forests, wetlands, rivers and biodiversity are increasingly understood as natural capital that supports economic growth, food security, public health and climate resilience.

The Sri Lankan elephant is one of the country’s most valuable natural assets.

Its importance extends far beyond wildlife tourism or cultural symbolism. The landscapes that sustain elephants also regulate water supplies, protect watersheds, conserve biodiversity, store carbon and strengthen the resilience of ecosystems upon which millions of people depend. Healthy elephant landscapes underpin agriculture, reduce the impacts of floods and droughts and contribute directly to the nation’s environmental security.

Conservation should, therefore, no longer be viewed simply as a public expenditure.

It is a long-term investment in Sri Lanka’s prosperity.

Nations that conserve their natural capital strengthen their economic capital. The two are increasingly inseparable.

Every healthy elephant landscape generates ecological, economic and social benefits that far exceed the cost of protecting it. Increasingly, these landscapes will also become valuable within emerging international mechanisms for biodiversity finance, ecosystem restoration and climate adaptation.

Protecting elephants, therefore, is also an investment in Sri Lanka’s future competitiveness.

A whole-of-government responsibility

No single institution can resolve the Human-Elephant Conflict.

The Department of Wildlife Conservation has a central role, but the future of elephants is equally influenced by decisions made in agriculture, forestry, irrigation, transport, tourism, finance, rural development and land-use planning.

This is why elephant conservation should become a whole-of-government responsibility.

Sri Lanka now has an opportunity to establish a Presidential Initiative for Human-Elephant Coexistence and National Elephant Conservation, bringing together all relevant ministries and institutions under a shared national vision.

Working through the Presidential Secretariat, such an initiative should coordinate the efforts of the Ministries responsible for Environment, Wildlife, Forest Conservation, Agriculture, Irrigation, Tourism, Finance, Digital Technology and Rural Development. Provincial Councils, Local Authorities, universities, research institutions, conservation organisations, farming communities and the private sector should all become partners in implementing practical, science-based solutions.

This should not be viewed as another environmental programme.

It should be recognised as a national development initiative that strengthens biodiversity, water security, climate resilience and sustainable rural livelihoods simultaneously.

Successful conservation depends upon collaboration rather than institutional fragmentation.

Planning for next generation

Meaningful conservation cannot be planned within five-year political cycles.

Elephants live for six or seven decades. Forest restoration takes generations. Climate change will continue to reshape landscapes throughout this century.

Sri Lanka, therefore, requires a long-term national framework that extends beyond successive governments.

A National Elephant Conservation and Management Master Plan (2027–2057) would provide that continuity.

The Master Plan should establish a clear national vision, supported by measurable objectives, regular independent scientific review and adaptive management, based upon emerging research.

It should identify priority elephant landscapes, strengthen ecological corridors and integrate Elephant Managed Rangesinto national land-use planning. Habitat restoration, community-managed fencing, improved compensation mechanisms, biodiversity finance and conservation education should become central components of the strategy.

Modern technologies must also become integral to conservation management. Satellite monitoring, GPS telemetry, artificial intelligence, remote sensing and predictive modelling can transform the way Sri Lanka understands elephant movements, anticipates conflict and manages landscapes. Used responsibly, these tools will enable conservation decisions to become increasingly proactive rather than reactive.

Above all, the Master Plan should ensure continuity.

Governments may change.

Policies may evolve.

The national commitment to conserving elephants and the landscapes they inhabit should remain constant.

Sri Lanka’s opportunity to lead

Few countries possess the combination of advantages that Sri Lanka enjoys.

The island supports one of the world’s highest densities of wild Asian elephants and the endemic Sri Lankan elephant (Elephas maximus maximus), found nowhere else on Earth. It possesses internationally respected conservation scientists, a long history of coexistence between people and elephants and a demographic transition that creates opportunities for long-term landscape planning unavailable to many other elephant-range countries.

These are strategic national assets.

If managed wisely, they place Sri Lanka in a unique position to become the world’s leading example of landscape-scale coexistence between people and free-ranging Asian elephants.

The international community is searching for successful conservation models that reconcile biodiversity protection with human development.

Sri Lanka has the opportunity not merely to participate in that conversation, but to lead it.

By integrating science, public policy and community participation, the country can demonstrate that conservation and development are not competing objectives. They are mutually reinforcing.

Such leadership would strengthen Sri Lanka’s international reputation while contributing meaningfully to global biodiversity conservation and climate resilience.

Beyond World Elephant Day

World Elephant Day should mark more than an annual celebration of one of the world’s most remarkable animals.

It should become a national reminder that the future of the Sri Lankan elephant is inseparable from the future of the country’s forests, watersheds and rural landscapes.

Science already exists.

The conservation expertise already exists.

The technology is available.

The policy foundations are increasingly well established.

What remains is the national leadership required to unite these strengths within a shared long-term vision.

History teaches us that great civilisations endure because they understand the relationship between people and the natural systems that sustain them. Sri Lanka’s ancient hydraulic civilisation flourished because forests protected water and water sustained society. Modern science has reaffirmed the same principle.

The forests that shelter elephants also safeguard rivers, reservoirs, biodiversity and the resilience of communities facing an increasingly uncertain climate.

To conserve those landscapes is to invest in the country’s future.

World Elephant Day should, therefore, become more than an occasion for reflection.

It should become the moment when Sri Lanka commits itself to a new national covenant: one that recognises elephant conservation as an integral part of environmental security, sustainable development and responsible stewardship of the nation’s natural heritage.

For, in the end, the future of the Sri Lankan elephant is not simply about ensuring the survival of an endangered species. It is about whether Sri Lanka possesses the wisdom to preserve the living landscapes that shaped its civilisation, the foresight to restore those that have been diminished, and the vision to entrust this enduring natural legacy to generations yet unborn.

(Dilum Alagiyawanna is a telecommunications engineer turned environmental and wildlife conservationist, citizen scientist and wildlife documentary filmmaker. He is an environmental policy researcher and writer whose work integrates science, public policy and sustainable development to advance wildlife conservation, climate resilience and landscape-scale environmental management, with particular emphasis on the long-term conservation of Sri Lanka’s elephants and other threatened species.)

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Midweek Review

Legacy of enforced disappearances: Vital facts conveniently forgotten to whitewash LTTE and India

Published

23 hours ago

2026/09/9

Sahan Weerasooriya

One-time child soldier Jesuthasan Antonythasan poses with actresses Claudine Vinasithamby and Kalieaswari Srinivasan during a photocall for the film "Dheepan" at the 68th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes. The movie won the Palme d'Or in 2015. Antonythasan fought for the LTTE terrorist group before fleeing Sri Lanka and reached France in 1993. Of those categorised as missing, perhaps he is the most famous.

Those demanding accountability from Sri Lanka for war crimes allegations are strangely silent on atrocities committed by the LTTE. On the orders of its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, the LTTE killed hundreds of members belonging to rival terrorist groups. It assassinated President Ranasinghe Premadsasa, almost succeeded in assassinating President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and made attempts on President Mahinda Rajapaksa. But, the indiscriminate use of children as cannon fodder went unnoticed. How many children, forcibly recruited into their ranks, perished in fighting? And, lastly, shouldn’t the Tamil community hold the Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK)-led now defunct Tamil National Alliance, that recognised the LTTE in 2001 as the sole representative of the Tamil speaking people, responsible for death and destruction caused since 2001?

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) representative Ana Lorena Delgadillo Pérez, and head of the Association of Relatives of Enforced Disappearances (ARED) Yogarasa Kanagaranjini, on 30 August, opened an exhibition at the Thanthai Selva Auditorium in Jaffna. The exhibition, appropriately named ‘Long Road for Justice,’ coincided with the International Day for Victims of Enforced Disappearances.

Pérez later addressed a conference held therein where the responsibility on the part of Sri Lanka was stressed.

Civil society activist Sunanda Deshapriya, in an article titled ‘Sri Lanka’s Disappeared: Where Do We Go from Here?’ carried in Jaffna Monitor, dealt with missing persons issue. Deshapriya focused on the North-East war (https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/sri-lankas-disappeared-where-do-we-go-from-here/)

The ICRC, Colombo, issued a statement regarding the International Day of the Disappeared. When the writer sought the number of missing persons in the country, Ruwanthi Jayasundare, Head of Communications, said that they had a caseload of 15,000 registered tracing requests (1983-2009) but she asserted that the actual number of missing was far bigger (https://island.lk/icrs-sustained-and-collective-efforts-critical-to-address-issue-of-missing-persons/)

Perhaps, many people wouldn’t know that the ICRC arrived here in 1989 during the second Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) terror campaign in the wake of Indian military intervention here. The much discussed issue of disappearances must be appropriately dealt with, taking into consideration the relevant factors. At the time of their deployment here, President Ranasinghe Premadasa had been engaged in direct talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Geneva-headquartered body never expected a gruesome outbreak of violence. It would be pertinent to mention that within weeks after the ICRC’s arrival here, the JVP was crushed with brute force as it, too, resorted to senseless violence. The counter violence unleashed by the state apparatus was such that the then Marxist group’s top leadership was killed, except for Somawansa Amarasinghe, who escaped, with Indian help, in February 1990, and remained in exile till late 2001.

The ICRC deployment took place in mid October, 1989, and JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera was captured in the second week of November, at Ulapone, and shot in custody, and was allegedly cremated alive at the Borella cemetery.

In fact, at the time the ICRC arrived here, the JVP was on its last legs. The UNP government never bothered to hand over the bodies of slain JVP cadres to their families. Those who had been listed missing at that time were no longer in the land of the living, by the time the ICRC brought its operation in the South to an end.

What the country never expected was a fresh flare-up in the northern and eastern regions. The LTTE resumed large-scale hostilities, in June, after the Indian Army pulled out from Sri Lanka in late March 1990. Interestingly, some of those demanding justice for the missing/disappeared are conveniently silent about the disappearances during the Indian Army deployment here (July 1987 to March 1990).

Soon after hostilities erupted in the northern and eastern regions, following a 14-month truce between President Ranasinghe Premadasa and LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran (May 1989 to June 1990), the ICRC was invited to open offices in that region. There had been excesses on the part of the military and law enforcement authorities as the government battled the LTTE, the world’s most ruthless terrorist organisation as assessed by none other than the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Yet Sri Lanka must earnestly address accountability issues and take meaningful measures to compensate the families of the innocents.

However, the Tamil community must come to terms with the reality that the vast majority of dead were members of the LTTE. The LTTE enjoyed considerable firepower as it literally wielded a conventional fighting capability, which even included a fledgling air force and directly challenged the government, and the armed forces had no option but to fight back. Obviously, the LTTE, that achieved significant battlefield successes over the years, never expected the almost non-stop three-year-long offensive that brought the war to an end in May 2009. Disappearances became exceptionally an important issue in the overall agenda pursued by the Tamil Diaspora and Tamil speaking political parties here only after the LTTE’s eradication.

Multiple reasons

In September 1990, several months after the Indian Army was literally forced to pull out from Sri Lanka as Tigers fought back the mighty IPKF to a standstill, while President Premadasa, too, made it clear that they were no longer welcome here, Amnesty International (AI) documented 43 cases of disappearances. According to the London headquartered AI, the majority of these disappearances happened in the Jaffna peninsula, following the outbreak of fighting in October 1989. The Indian Army launched ‘Operation Pawan’ meant to disarm the LTTE in line with the Indo-Lanka Accord, signed on 29 July, 1987.

During the Indian Army deployment here (1987 July to 1990 March), the Sri Lankan armed forces were confined to their barracks in the North and East. The AI accused the Indian Army of torture, extrajudicial executions and disappearances. The deaths of nearly 1,500 Indian officers and men, and injuries to approximately 3,000 others during the Indian deployment here, underscored the ferocity of the situation.

The Indian Army carried out reprisals, following LTTE attacks in both provinces. The Indian Army was also accused of sexual violence. Perhaps, the August 1989 Valvettithurai orgy of violence, during which Indian soldiers killed civilians, tortured detainees, committed sexual violence, and systematically destroyed homes and businesses, while the town was under curfew, was the worst case.

In October, 2025, the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) presented a detailed reparations claim, in association with the Valvettithurai Citizens’ Committee, to the Sri Lankan Office for Reparations, requesting USD $15 million (LKR 4.5 billion) for victims of a 1989 orgy of violence committed by the IPKF where at least 66 civilians were killed and 34 injured.

There hadn’t been a previous instance of a comprehensive compensation claim for such a wartime crime. Thousands of LTTE cadres, some of them trained in India, and civilians, perished in Indian Army action. The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) earned such a bad reputation it came to be dubbed the Indian People Killing Force.

The war in Sri Lanka, or whatever one chooses to call it, should be examined in the context of a high profile Indian destabilisation project ordered by Premier Indira Gandhi. Over a year after the Indian Army pullout, the LTTE assassinated Rajiv Gandhi, by then out of power, but he was the person Velupillai Prabhakaran held responsible for the Indian Army deployment in Sri Lanka. Following Gandhi’s assassination, India hunted down the LTTE team, involved in the operation, carried out by a female suicide cadre.

The LTTE forgot the Indian role in the transformation of the Tamil separatist terrorist movement to a deadly conventional threat. If not for the despicable Indian action, Sri Lanka wouldn’t have been hauled up before the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). That is the unpalatable truth.

How many Sri Lankan Tamils disappeared during weapons training in India? Did India investigate such disappearances as well as deaths caused by fighting among rival Tamil terrorist groups operating in India at that time? Among the groups that had been armed by India were PLOTE (People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam), EPRLF (Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front) and TELO (Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation) responsible for quite a significant number of killings and human rights violations.

India never accepted responsibility for the PLOTE raid on the Maldives on a contract to topple the then Maldivian PM Gayoom’s government given by a domestic rival in early November, 1988. Shouldn’t New Delhi at least apologise for the sea borne raid on the Maldives that resulted in deaths of Maldivians, as well as raiders? The Indian Navy sank a ship commandeered by the attackers fleeing the Maldives after air borne Indian troops brought the situation under control.

The Indian and global media praised swift Indian intervention but ignored two key factors, namely (i) the operation targeting Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was mounted by one of the groups trained, armed and deployed by India and (ii) two trawlers carrying the raiding party left the northern part of Sri Lanka, at that time held by the Indian Army.

The writer had the opportunity, in November, 2011, to interview the Maldivian businessman, Abdullah Luthufee, who convinced the PLOTE leader Uma Maheswaran to carry out the operation. (Male plot leader speaks out 3 November, 2011, Rajiv saved us from Gayoom-Male coup leader 4 November 2011 and How Luthufee moved SAARC venue from Male to Addu 11 Nov 2011) dealt with the operation that should have drawn international attention to the Indian destabilisation project. Let me stress that some PLOTE cadres perished when the Indian Navy sank the vessel commandeered by the fleeing PLOTE cadres. They were among those who had been listed missing during the conflict.

Australian and US interventions

One-time top JVPer Kumar Gunaratnam secret arrival in Sri Lanka as an Australian Citizen Noel Mudalige, in early September, 2011, emphasised the issuance of foreign passports in assumed names to Sri Lankans under controversial circumstances. The writer exclusively reported how the head of the breakaway JVP faction, known as the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), arrived here. The Australian High Commission in Sri Lanka acted swiftly and decisively when Gunaratnam disappeared after entering the country, using Australian passport bearing number N 1016123 on September 4, 2011 (https://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/?p=43914). The writer dealt with the same issue again in August 2016 (https://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/?p=47936).

Among thousands of Sri Lankans, now having foreign citizenship, there can be many people listed here as “missing/forcibly” disappeared. Western governments never helped Sri Lanka to establish the real identities of Sri Lankans living abroad, under assumed names. If Gunaratnam never acted in a manner inimical to the JVP, he could have easily lived a comfortable life in Australia as Sinhala Buddhist Noel Mudalige.

There had been many interesting stories of those categorised as missing/dead turning up in the West, under new identities. One of the most intriguing ones, is about an ex-LTTE terrorist turned Frenchman Antonythasan Jesuthasan, the lead actor in Dheepen that won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.

Internationally acclaimed Jacques Audiard directed the movie about three Sri Lankans who formed a fake family to escape the war and to secure asylum in France. Antonythasan Jesuthasan’s performance in Dheepan earned him a Best Actor nomination at the 2016 César Awards (the French equivalent of the Oscars). Jesuthasan is the only ex-LTTE terrorist to receive international acclaim as an actor.

In an interview with Tom Seymour (Dheepan’s Antonythasan Jesuthasan: from Tamil Tiger to star of a Palme d’Or winner in The Guardian) posted online on March 31, 2016, transformed Frenchman Jesuthasan, unwittingly revealed how he deceived the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to secure political asylum. Seymour reported that Jesuthasan, after having shown him a dense lattice of scars on his forearm, declared: “I did those to myself. I was 22, and I had spent years trying to come to the west. I wanted to get a fake French passport, but I had to be accepted as a refugee. I went to the UNHCR [the UN High Commissioner for Refugees], but they wouldn’t believe my story. So I cut myself, and held up my arm, and said to them: ‘Look at my blood. This is my word.”

Jesuthasan is just one among thousands who obtained political asylum on false claims. Jesuthasan ended up as the star of Dheepan, directed by Jacques Audiard, possibly France’s most celebrated modern director. There cannot be a better example than Jesuthasan to highlight the web of deceit pertaining to the vast majority of those who successfully secured political asylum. But, the Sri Lanka Foreign Ministry never bothered to set the record straight. Born in Allaipiddy, on the Velanaitivu islet, Jesuthasan claimed he fought the Sri Lanka Army in August 1990 and subsequently fled the country and managed to reach France.

But, the case of Kathiravel Thayapararajah is one of the most controversial cases. Thayapararajah had been involved in a Tamil Diaspora funded project in Kilinochchi during Eelam war IV. He couldn’t have secured the Diaspora assignment without the approval of the LTTE and remained in the Vanni during the war. He disappeared in September 2009.

His disappearance prompted a section of the media, as well as some international NGOs, to accuse the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) of executing him. No less a person than the then US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs and one-time US Ambassador in Colombo, Robert O. Blake, inquired about the missing person.

The University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), the Australian Government Refugee Review Tribunal, Tamilnet and the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights among others blamed the Sri Lankan intelligence for the disappearance. However, the Indian media, in May, 2014, revealed Thayapararajah’s arrest though they didn’t know at the time that he was the person who was supposed to have been killed by the Sri Lankan Intelligence. At the time Indian police apprehended Thayapararajah, at Arichamunai off Dhanuskodi, after arriving there in a boat from Sri Lanka, he had been with notorious female human smuggler Uthayakala. She claimed Thayapararajah was her second husband.

That chance detection exposed a blatant lie propagated over the years. The then Head of Missing Persons Commission, retired High Court Judge Maxwell Paranagama, is also on record as having called for international cooperation to trace persons living overseas under new identities. Paranagama told the writer that at that time both the international community, including the ICRC, had declined to help Sri Lanka identify those taking cover behind new identities.

Chemmani mass graves

Sri Lanka needs to investigate war crimes allegations, particularly the high profile Chemmani mass grave. The country cannot ignore the continuing accusations with the international media taking advantage of the situation to tarnish the country, especially the Rajapaksa rule. It must be a way of the West taking revenge from the Rajapaksas for going against their wish to save the bold thirsty Tigers. It is like their logic that Israel can do no wrong!

The CNN dealt with the Chemmani issue while the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), in July last year, called for what it claimed as victim-centred investigation into the alleged mass graves in compliance with international law and standards.

Tamil political parties, too, repeatedly demanded tangible action against the perpetrators. The Chemmani mass grave site drew national and international attention in 1998 following the confession of a soldier implicated in the rape and murder of schoolgirl Krishanthy Kumaraswamy. Chemmani has become a powerful and painful symbol of the country’s war-torn past.

Krishanthy Kumaraswamy was raped and killed by soldiers on the 7th of September, 1996. The same group of soldiers later killed her mother, her younger brother and a family friend who went out searching for the teenager.

An excavation, in 1999, led to the recovery of 15 sets of remains, and then the matter was allowed to rest for about a quarter of a century. On the orders of the Jaffna Magistrate’s court, a fresh excavation was ordered last year, following the chance recovery of some skeletal remains and so far nearly 600 sets of human remains have been found, among them children and infants. Tamil media have declared Chemmani as the largest mass grave found in Sri Lanka.

It would be pertinent to mention that some time back the Army was accused of the Mannar mass graves but investigations undertaken by the Office of Missing Persons (OMP), with international expertise, proved the claims false. Bone fragment samples were submitted to Beta Analytic, a specialised US radiocarbon-dating laboratory. This happened during the Yahapalana administration (2015-2019) Later, the lab indicated that the tested bone samples dated back to the period between 1499 and 1719 AD (the 15th to 18th century). That brought an end to the Mannar mass graves hoax.

Whatever the circumstances, the government cannot remain silent regarding the Chemmani mass graves. The area that had been under Security Forces Headquarters, Jaffna continues to receive public attention, both here and abroad. The Army will have to address the issue without further delay. Let me stress the importance of investigating the atrocities perpetrated by others, namely the Indian Army for which the responsibility lies with the government of India as well as the LTTE, and over half a dozen other terrorist groups that subsequently entered the political mainstream.

The formation of Tamil National Army (TNA) by India before the Indian Army pullout by March 1990, too, must receive the attention of Sri Lanka as well the concerned international community. Having totally destabilised the smaller neighbouring county by arming scores of terrorist groups, New Delhi went a step further by the formation of the TNA meant to protect Varatharaja Perumal’s North-East provincial administration.

In spite of President Ranasinghe Premadasa drawing strong criticism for arming the LTTE against the Indian Army, in hindsight, if not for his controversial decision, India’s proxy, TNA may have taken root. Whatever various parties say today, the TNA had been formed to ensure the continuation of the deeply unpopular Perumal’s administration that went to the extent of forcible conscription. India can never absolve itself of responsibility for what it did in Sri Lanka. The destabilisation project, largely influenced by the then Premier Indira Gandhi’s concerns over the developing situation in Tamil Nadu, caused massive death and destruction. No less a person than J.N. Dixit, who served as their High Commissioner in Colombo (1985 to 1989), and later appointed National Security Advisor (2004 to 2005) disclosed in his memoirs ‘Makers of India’s Foreign Policy: Raja Ram Mohun to Yashwant Sinha’, Indira’s Gandhi’s intervention. The late Dixit in no uncertain terms blamed her for Indian intervention in Sri Lanka.

Midweek Review

A street where Sri Lankan stories found their readers

Published

23 hours ago

2026/09/9

Sahan Weerasooriya

Margaret Richardson and Asanka de Mel / Ashok Ferrey

By Ifham Nizam

Pictures by Nishan S Priyantha and Kamal Bogoda

Ashok Ferrey took readers into an older Colombo through Colpetty People. Vivimarie Vanderpoorten opened the door to the personal stories behind her poetry. Andrew Fidel Fernando brought cricket, culture and the distinctive world of Sri Lankan school cricket into the conversation, while Ramya Jirasinghe spoke candidly about the long and often difficult road from writing a manuscript to seeing it published.

Then came Margaret Richardson and Asanka de Mel, whose conversation moved from literature to the question of where Sri Lanka should be by 2048.

These were among the voices that gave life to Fairway Street of Stories, a new initiative that sought to bring Sri Lankan English-language writers closer to their readers.

But behind the gathering of authors, readers, books, children, book clubs and aspiring writers was a bigger idea—the brainchild of Amendra Haputhanthri, Director of Sarasavi Bookshop (Pvt) Ltd.

For Haputhanthri, Fairway Street of Stories is not merely another literary event. It is part of a much larger attempt to create a marketplace for Sri Lankan talent and to persuade readers to discover stories that are unmistakably their own.

“Usually, when we have exhibitions, such as the Colombo Book Fair, we always think about what sells the most. Here, we wanted to create a niche market for people who want to read Sri Lankan writing,” she said.

And the first event demonstrated just how wide that literary world can be.

Stories from a Sri Lanka we know

Haputhanthri believes one of the greatest strengths of Sri Lankan English writing is its sense of place.

A thriller set in an unfamiliar foreign city may be entertaining. But a thriller unfolding at the Galle Face Hotel or Mount Lavinia Hotel carries another kind of intimacy for a Sri Lankan reader.

“You have familiar words and actual real-world places that we have been to. There will be a connection with the book,” she said.

That connection can be even more powerful when the story takes readers into places and experiences that are disappearing.

This is one reason she admires Ferrey’s work.

During his Fairway session, Ferrey, together with Tanya de Mel, offered readers an engaging glimpse into the world behind Colpetty People and the Colombo it captures.

Amendra Haputhanthri (extreme left) with winners

For Haputhanthri, Ferrey’s writing is also a record of a rapidly changing city.

“Even Sri Lanka is changing very rapidly. Within Colombo also, the environment is rapidly changing, and that is being addressed nicely in the books of Ashok Ferrey,” she said.

Literature, in that sense, becomes more than entertainment.

It becomes memory.

The stories behind the poems

Vivimarie Vanderpoorten offered a very different literary experience.

Haputhanthri describes her as one of the country’s outstanding contemporary talents, particularly because of the personal histories embedded in her poetry.

A poem on a page may be only a few lines long. But behind those lines can lie an entire life.

Vanderpoorten spoke about those experiences at Fairway, including deeply disturbing events she had witnessed during her university years.

For Haputhanthri, hearing those stories transformed the poems.

“All her stories, there is a back story. All her poems, there is a back story,” she said.

She believes such conversations are precisely what literary events should create—a space where readers can move beyond the printed page and understand the human experience that produced it.

She also encouraged people to read poetry, even if only one poetry collection a year.

Poetry, she believes, forces readers to think beyond what is immediately presented.

“It gives you the ability to think out of the box,” she said.

Cricket is more than a score

Andrew Fidel Fernando brought yet another dimension to the event.

For someone who writes and comments on international cricket, his work naturally takes readers into the world of the game. But Haputhanthri noted that Fernando’s writing also captures the culture surrounding cricket in different countries.

And Sri Lanka has a particularly richstory to tell.

Andrew Fidel Fernando / Dr. Vivimarie Vanderpoorten

For Haputhanthri, the island’s school-cricket culture is something the world should know more about.

“We are the best in the world when it comes to having a culture for school cricket. It is something very unique to our country,” she said.

She even suggested that writers interested in Sri Lankan cricket should explore this largely distinctive phenomenon in greater depth.

Because literature can sometimes reveal what statistics cannot.

A schoolboy walking onto a cricket ground carries with him a school, a city, friendships, rivalries, family expectations and an entire culture.

From manuscript to book

Ramya Jirasinghe’s contribution was particularly relevant to aspiring writers.

She spoke about her own journey and the realities of getting a book published.

Her experience demonstrated that literary success rarely happens overnight.

Winning recognition is one thing. Turning a manuscript into an internationally published book is another.

For emerging writers listening to her, the message was clear: writing requires patience, revision and persistence.

Haputhanthri knows that process well.

Writers, she said, can be rejected repeatedly—even at international level.

And translations create another layer of difficulty.

Sometimes an author reads a translation of his or her work and says: “This doesn’t have my voice.”

That, Haputhanthri acknowledged, illustrates how complex the journey from an original manuscript to another language can be.

A speech from the future

Carmel Miranda

Asanka de Mel and Margaret Richardson brought another perspective to Fairway.

De Mel’s 2048: A Speech from 2048 looks towards the centenary of Sri Lanka’s independence and asks why the country has not yet become a developed nation.

But his message, as Haputhanthri interpreted it, was not one of resignation.

Sri Lanka should not allow its small geographical size to become a psychological limitation.

De Mel’s own journey—from two decades in Silicon Valley to returning to Sri Lanka and embarking on entrepreneurial ventures—was offered as an example of what persistence and confidence can achieve.

For Haputhanthri, it reinforced one of the central lessons of both writing and life.

“There is no shortcut in life,” she said.

Stories that preserve a country

Fairway Street of Stories also reflected Haputhanthri’s belief that literature can preserve aspects of Sri Lankan identity that are increasingly vulnerable.

She spoke about Angampora, Beeralu weaving, traditional culture and historical stories.

Even the country’s royal heritage can become a gateway for a new generation to understand the island’s past.

She recalled seeing foreign visitors browsing books about Sri Lankan kings.

Those books were doing more than recounting history. They were presenting the story of a country with a long and complicated heritage.

Haputhanthri believes Sri Lankan literature can perform a similar role internationally.

“Our stories should also reach people in the same way our food and cultural experiences have reached the world,” she said.

She recalled meeting two foreigners who had visited Sri Lanka around 156 times.

Their extraordinary attachment to the country reminded her that Sri Lanka’s culture has an ability to attract people repeatedly.

The stories of the country, she believes, deserve the same reach.

The problem is not the e-book

Ramya Jirasinghe (third from left)

Yet while Haputhanthri is passionate about books, she is equally concerned about the future of reading.

She does not believe e-books are necessarily the enemy.

“If people are reading an e-version, as long as they are reading something valuable, that will add something to you,” she said.

The bigger threat, in her view, is the endless scrolling culture of the smartphone.

“Scrolling on the phone reduces your attention span and you can’t do any sort of deep work,” she said.

She has observed this challenge among young people entering the workplace and believes sustained concentration is increasingly difficult.

But her answer is not to blame young people.

It is to begin much earlier—with parents and teachers.

“Whatever the parents read, the children also will read,” she said.

‘Readers Are Not Born, They Are Created’

That belief is now developing into another initiative.

Haputhanthri is working on a programme titled ‘Readers Are Not Born, They Are Created’, which she hopes to take from school to school and community to community.

The target will be parents as much as children.

The message is that reading habits are cultivated. They are demonstrated, encouraged and nurtured.

She also hopes to involve children who have themselves developed through reading, allowing them to share their experiences with others.

For Haputhanthri, the issue is deeply personal.

“I would credit everything that I have today, and everything I am today, because of reading,” she said.

She believes avid readers develop empathy, creativity and critical thinking—qualities that are increasingly valuable in a world dominated by information but often short on attention.

Beyond one literary weekend

Fairway Street of Stories, therefore, is not intended to remain a once-a-year literary celebration.

Haputhanthri wants to see activities connected with reading and books continue throughout the year.

A bargain book sale is among the ideas being considered, making use of books from Sarasavi’s extensive network of branches that may have suffered minor damage or discolouration while remaining on shelves.

The next major event will be the book fair, followed by further initiatives.

But the larger ambition goes beyond sales.

It is about discovery.

A reader discovering a Sri Lankan writer.

A child discovering poetry.

An aspiring author discovering that rejection is not the end.

A foreign visitor discovering that Sri Lanka’s stories are as rich as its food, landscapes and traditions.

And a country discovering itself in its own books.

That is perhaps the most significant contribution of Fairway Street of Stories.

Because the authors who gathered there did more than talk about their books.

They demonstrated the many ways in which Sri Lanka can be written, remembered and imagined.

And behind that gathering was Amendra Haputhanthri’s conviction that these stories deserve not only a place on a bookshelf, but a place in the minds of readers—and eventually, a place in the wider world.