Report 11
APPENDIX IV
A
note on Land Encroachment
Looked
at by itself land encroachment is a purely human problem and has nothing to
do with ethnicity. Those living on encroached lands are usually very poor,
often earning their bare subsistence through menial work or chena (slash &
burn) cultivation. Without the family or social back-up of established farmers,
their sons and daughters have to find their living as early as their teens.
Young couples themselves, lacking in means of educational advancement, start
life on encroached land - often crown forest reserves. Despite laws against
encroachment, the problem assumed such a magnitude that the land ministry
issued a general order in 1978 to regularise all encroachments. This benefitted
persons from all communities living on encroached lands. Thus far it was non-discriminatory.
Again
the discriminatory aspect entered through the manner in which the security
forces and the administrative machinery favoured one particular community.
Let us look at some of these.
In
the early 60s when Mc Heyzer was GA/Trincomalee, land along the Kandy
Road from the 4th Mile Post (China Bay Junction) to Monkey Bridge
was designated a middle class scheme. There was a rush among government officers
to acquire lands which were given generously. But the area lacking the infrastructure
of town life, the owners did not go into occupation and the lands were neglected.
Most of it was encroached by Sinhalese over a number of years. The owners
showed no interest in taking legal action.
Following
the violence of 1977, 284 families of Tamil victims, of Indian origin settled
in Kappalthurai, partly on land under a middle class cultivation scheme which
had fallen into some neglect. This land is roughly between the 5th
Mile Post and Cottiar Bay. These people had a unique problem. Although many
of them were registered citizens, persons of Indian origin are alone required
to produce proof of citizenship. Most of these people had lost everything including
their documents. Sympathetic land officials could have acted differently and
defended their action. But officialdom in Trincomalee dominated by a particular
kind of Sinhalese used these victims’ disability, maintained that they
were all non-citizens and refused to regularise their encroachments. As described
in 2.3, these people were herded into refugee camps during June/July
1983 and many were forcibly deported to the hill country. Subsequently many
of them returned. Their children were attending the Kappalthurai school which
also had a Sinhalese stream and was opened in 1981. During June 1990 these people
were driven out again. Presently, as the result of pressure mounted through
the land ministry of the North-East provincial administration, agreement has
reportedly been reached in re-accomodating 419
Tamil familes who fled the area- of both Indian and local origin.We
have encountered Palampottaru stage 1 as Pattinipuram in 2.2.5. These are lands
between the part of Kandy Road, from Monkey Bridge to Thambalakamam and the railway tracks. These lands were alienated
to people of Thambalakamam in the 60s. A few built houses there. Most owners
stayed in Thambalakamam and did cultivation on these lands during the winter
rains. As security deteriorated these lands came in for neglect and subsequently
some of it is said to have been encroached upon. The main encroachment took
place in Palampottaru Stage 2 which is on the side of the road opposite stage
1. The land Kacheri for allocations to stage 2 was held about 1973 and allottees
were chosen from all three communities. Owing to a complaint about the method
of selection, those selected were not given possession of the lands. But the
matter remained suspended without the selections being cancelled. In due course,
particularly in the late 70s or the early 80s, Sinhalese squatters came into
occupation. [See 2.1].
The
Trincomalee District boundary begins a few miles north-east of Aluth Oya along
the (Kandy) Habarana - Trinco Road. Lands along the road were being encroached
by Sinhalese who did chena cultivation. During the latter 80s they abandoned
these lands owing to Tamil militant activity. They have returned recently
after army positions along the road were strengthened.
Sinhalese
encroachment along the Allai - Kantalai Road ceased when a number of Tamil
militant groups operated in the mid 80s and when later the IPKF was
present. After June 1990 the Sri Lankan army’s position has been sufficiently
strengthened for Sinhalese encroachment to resume. Sources in Trincomalee
believe that they receive material inducement from the state as well as from
interested organisations in the South. Ministerial circles in the late 60s
and early 70s, we reliably understand, had discussed the colonisation of this
area as a means of sundering the continuity of Tamil speaking areas.
Currently,
as we have argued [2.2-4], despite the later
land ministry circular of October 1989 forbidding regularisation of encroachments
after this date, Sinhalese encroachments continue with the circular easily
circumvented [See 2.2.3]. Tamils are of
course in no position to encroach, leave alone reoccupy their own lands.
As
Appendix II suggests, encroachments seem to do comparatively little
to alter the demographic balance as those encroaching are often from around
that area. The really significant changes have come through the big colonisation
schemes. On the other hand regularisation of encroachments does nothing to
solve key long term problems. Its chief merit is that it costs the state nothing.
Encroachers as a class continue to be poor and deprived with poor education
and no social mobility as also their children are likely to be. As experience
increasingly shows, in a competitive environment, small land holders lack
the ability for profitable capital intensive farming and are likely to sell
their lands for a modest price if some entrepreneur with money comes along.
Again
the environmental aspects have hardly been gone into. The North-East still
has a large proportion of the country’s diminishing forest reserves.
These are down from 8O% to 2O% of the land area in 1OO years. Should these
be further impaired simply for the joy of making some of its districts Sinhalese
majority areas? Conservation of wild-life is again both a moral as well as
an ecological issue so far largely ignored. The point where the Allai-Kantalai
road crosses the Mahaveli river is one from which the herd and family lives
of wild elephants can be regularly observed. How long will this last? As mentioned
earlier colonisation and land settlement has been virtually an affair of political
gerrymandering with nothing else taken into account. The associated social
problems and the need for viable employment seem to require very different
solutions [See also 8.2].
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