JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal on Tuesday took up a long-running dispute over grazing land in the country’s east, after the petitioner’s side asked it to reopen the case on the grounds that an earlier ruling had not been carried out.
The case was filed by Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, a member of Parliament from Batticaloa District. It concerns the Mayilathamadu and Madhavanai pastures, which Tamil cattle and dairy farmers say they have used for generations.
M.A. Sumanthiran, a President’s Counsel representing the petitioner’s side, said after the hearing that the court had previously ordered the removal of people illegally settled on the Madhavanai grazing land. Following that order, he said, the Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka, the state agency that controls the area, had said it would remove the illegal settlement. The authority did not keep that promise, according to Mr. Sumanthiran, and illegal settlements continued in the area.
No state counsel appeared for the Attorney General on Tuesday, Mr. Sumanthiran said, and the state therefore asked for more time.
He said the court also stated that newcomers to the area could likewise be removed in accordance with the law.
Mr. Sumanthiran said he expected government officials and the Mahaweli Authority to remove the illegal occupants in accordance with the law before the next hearing and to submit a report to the court.
The farmers, from villages including Kiran, Chenkalady, Porathivu and Paddipalai, have accused crop cultivators from neighboring districts, most of them Sinhalese, of clearing and plowing the pastures for corn. They have also reported cattle killings, intimidation and being blocked from the land. In 2023, a weekslong protest by the farmers ended after the police obtained a court injunction against it.
Sunil Handunnetti, a cabinet minister, said recently that presidential approval had been obtained to gazette the area as designated grazing land. Farmers say those measures have yet to change conditions on the ground.
