The fight over Mayilathamadu and Madavana grazing rights in Sri Lanka's Batticaloa District has been ongoing for more than 200 days, day and night.
Protests are ongoing in the Chithandi region of Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, where a tent has been erected.
On April 1, 2024, a sizable demonstration was held to commemorate the end of the 200-day protest.
The impacted parties say that, despite President Ranil Wickremesinghe of Sri Lanka's directive to the pertinent parties to begin finding a solution, no resolution to this problem has been offered as of yet.
However, a roadblock has been jointly established by the police and army on the main route that leads into the Madhavanai Meichaltharai and Mayilattamadu regions.
While the nation's president has ordered an investigation into the matter, erecting checkpoints and preventing the Tamil residents of Batticaloa area from entering raises a number of concerns.
What's going on in the districts of Madhavanai and Mylathamadu?
The Sri Lankan districts of Batticaloa and Polonnaruwa border the Mayilattamadu and Madhavanai areas. Massive trees encircle the areas of Mayilattamadu and Madhavanai. In certain portions of the Batticaloa district, the Mayilathadu and Madawanai areas are regarded as the traditional cattle rearing zones.
The majority of the farmers in the Batticaloa district rear their cattle (goats and cows) in these two places since they include thousands of acres of enormous grazing ground.
The farmers claim that over three lakh goats and cows are raised in these regions.
It is customary in the Batticaloa district to bring goats and cows to the grazing area while farming crops.
This states that the grazing regions of Mayilathadu and Madhavanai are home to about three lakh cattle.
Farmers in the Batticaloa region are claiming that singal residents from the Polonnaruwa district are relocating close to the grazing areas of Madavanai and Mayilattamadu.
There are rumors that those who have invaded the regions of Mylathamadu and Madhavanai have begun cultivating there.
Farmers in the Batticaloa district also report that encroaching settlers torment their livestock in different ways when they let them into the agriculturalists' farmlands.
Ranchers assert that encroaching settlers abuse their animals, killing them by stabbing them with sharp objects, entangling them in electric fences, causing their livestock to vanish, and planting explosives nearby.
Farmers in the Batticaloa district also claim that their livestock are suffering greatly as a result of the disinfectants sprayed on the grazing grass.
In one instance, farmers have complained to police stations about hundreds of cow deaths that had occurred in the previous nine months.
There are also reports that a large number of goats and cows are suffering from starvation. They also mention that the grazing area's grass has been set on fire by encroaching settlers.
How are the regions of Madhavanai and Mayilathadu doing now?
As the farmers in the Batticaloa district are complaining about issues in the Mylathamadu and Madhavana areas, a field survey was carried out by the newspaper team 'Tamilan' to look into the situation.
The districts of Mayilathadu and Madhavanai are located roughly 60 kilometers apart from Batticaloa city.
Politicians, social activists, and media representatives are not being allowed entry into the region by the security forces due to the growing intensity of the Mayilattamadu and Madhavanai crisis.
The locals point out that using Mathuruoya to get to the Mayilattamadu and Madhavanai pastures is both safer and more convenient.
Farmers who claim that passing through the forest will expose them to wild elephant difficulties also cite how their farmers have frequently been attacked by elephants.
While Kran provides access to the grazing grounds of Mylathamadu and Madhavanai, those areas are severely affected by wild elephant populations.
As a result, even though Mathuruoya is safe to pass through, authorization is not granted by the security personnel.
In this instance, we entered the region through Gran to look into the current situation in the Mayilathadu and Madhavanai grazing areas, regardless of the wild elephant difficulties.
Riding our motorcycles, we made our way towards the Mylathamadu and Madhavanai grazing areas, navigating our way through a variety of obstacles such as single track tracks, potholed tracks, water bodies, and water drains within the vast forest area. We saw numerous indications of elephant movement along the route.
We arrived at Mayilattamu and Madhavanai grazing pasture after almost two hours of driving. Cattle grazing like goats and cows were visible to us.
Additionally, there were occasionally remnants of deceased animals, particularly cows. The cattle had traces of skins and bones on them, and certain places smelled bad.
We saw some things when we visited the Mayilathadu and Madhavana grazing regions, despite the farmers in the Batticaloa district telling us that invading settlers are working there.
Numerous vehicles, including tricycles, motorbikes, Beko machines, and spy machines, were also observed, along with some houses that are thought to be the property of undocumented immigrants. It was also observed that the individuals who are allegedly illegal settlers work in agriculture.
We could observe that Maduruoya was the entry point used by these accused illegal immigrants.
It was noted that the army and police officers noted the infiltrators' identities in the log books, issued them token numbers, and let them entry.
The security agency enters information on illegal immigrants into the government registry. By doing this, the farmers hope to emphasize in the future that they have engaged in agriculture in these places by having their information documented in official government records. The land will be verified for them in future court proceedings if their information is accessible in the state record. Farmers draw attention to the actions taken by the government in this regard.
Tamils are not allowed in by the security department, which permits Sinhalese people to be in the region. Specifically, we entered the woodland against the backdrop of previous entry refusals for journalists, lawmakers, and farmers.
We left the region by taking the main road and traveling through the woodland. The security personnel halted our crew during this and forbade them from leaving the area.
The guards instructed them to exit the building in the same manner that they entered, or they would not be permitted to do so.
They were unaffected, though, when we informed them that there would be wild elephants along the Kran in the evening, so we could not travel the same path as that time.
Gran is passed through by us. Even though we have instructed the security forces to accept responsibility if wild elephants endanger human lives, they should continue in the same direction. There was a policeman there who remarked, "If there is a risk to life, we cannot take responsibility."
Following that, there was a verbal altercation between us and the security personnel. We read the policeman what was on the identity card that the Government Information Department had sent to media.
This area does not have high security. Nowhere are any signs saying 'No Entry'. The police and troops took pictures of our identity cards on their phones and released us after several hours of argument claiming this is why we entered.
We received a call on our phone a couple of hours after we left the location. We received a phone call from a man posing as an army officer who said he wanted to meet us in person. But we declined to meet him that time because we thought he was a threat.
Such issues were encountered by journalists covering the Mailathamadu and Madhavana grazing areas.
