Controversy Over Land Seizures in Northern Provinces; Sumanthiran Goes to SC • Sri Lanka Brief

Controversy Over Land Seizures in Northern Provinces; Sumanthiran goes to SC • Sri Lanka Brief

A serious issue affecting the Tamil population in Sri Lanka’s northern and eastern provinces has been the seizure of privately owned lands by state institutions such as the military, police, and various government departments overseeing archaeology, forestry, wildlife, and coastal conservation. The latest development in this regard was Gazette Notification No. 2430/25, issued on March 28, 2025, under the Land Settlement Ordinance. It stated that…

Land Appropriation Continues to Threaten Northern and Eastern Communities

The appropriation of land under the guise of security, development and other reasons, in the Northern and Eastern provinces, highlights the complexities of Sri Lanka’s land related conflicts. Over the decades, several initiatives have been taken to dispossess people of their lands such as the creation of high security zones and special economic zones to more recently the use of “national heritage”. In several instances, laws and policies have be…