Attempt to change the name of Kuruvil Village (Photos & Video)

The villagers of, Kuruvil village is afraid that The Wild Life Department is trying to evict the residents. In a context where a case had been filed in the Mannar court and the case is pending, name boards of Yothawewa Sanctuary had been erected in and around the village in a way threatening the villagers contravening the laws that are currently in force.

Following the affected people bringing the matter to the attention of the Mannar Citizen Committee, an official of the Citizen Committee, A.Sahayam and the Lawyer of the Citizen committee visited the area  and observed the situation.

Particularly, the officials of the Wild Life Department had filed a case last in the Mannar court, seeking the eviction of the people of Kuruvil village from the village.

In this context, contravening the laws in force, name boards with Yotha wewa Sanctuary on them had been erected newly on Wednesday (21)  as if to threaten the villagers.

It is notable that in 1972, 150 families were living in the village of Kuruvi, located in the Palperumalkaddu GS Division of the Manthai West Divisional Secretary’s area. However due to the abnormal war situation that prevailed they displaced from their village and now had settled back in their village.

Several development projects had been undertaken for these people and 120 fishermen belonging to 7 Fishing Societies were given 46 fresh water fishing crafts.

As this village has a fertile soil conducive to undertake several livelihood, the villagers are afraid that the Government is orchestrating to evict the Tamil families from here and replace them with Sinhala families.

Last year also, boards saying ‘This is army property’ were erected in several places including the entrance to the village, and were subsequently removed, due to the action taken by the people and Citizen Committee  and following that the Wild Life Department filed the case against the villagers.

Particularly the Officials of the Wild Life Department, who go to the village trespass into the houses of the villager and carry out threatening activities like checking the cooked meals etc. It is in this context that the Yotha Wewa boards had been erected on Wednesday in Kuruvil village and areas around it.

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