Sri Lanka is to create a wildlife sanctuary in a swath of heavily mined jungle that was once the stronghold of the Tamil Tigers separatists, an official said today, a year and a half after the country's 25-year civil war ended.
More than 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares) in the northern Mullaitivu district will be used to conserve wildlife, including elephants.
The densely jungled area, which was the setting for key rebel bases during the civil war, is however an unlikely site for a nature reserve.
It was the scene of heavy fighting last year during the final stages of the conflict. Human rights campaigners have claimed that hundreds, possibly thousands, of civilians were killed in indiscriminate bombardments in the last days of the fighting.
Tamil villagers interviewed by the Guardian in Sri Lanka this year confirmed that many non-combatants had been killed as shells fired by government artillery landed among crowded refugee encampments.
Since the end of the war the area – which was under Tamil Tiger rule for much of the past two decades – has remained without significant investment.
However, today a wildlife department official said the area would be declared a sanctuary "shortly" – but first it will have to be cleared of hundreds of thousands of landmines buried by the rebels. Many of these have been cleared by the Sri Lankan army and a range of international NGOs, but it is estimated that 1.5m landmines remain in the country's northern region.
A government statement said the sanctuary would also help solve a growing conflict between humans and wild elephants, which enter villages in search of food as deforestation destroys their natural habitats. Elephants killed 50 people last year, while villagers killed more than 200 of the animals by shooting or electrocuting them. Between 10,000 and 15,000 elephants roamed wild in Sri Lanka a century ago, but today only about 3,000 remain, largely due to poaching and habitat loss.
The Sri Lankan government is banking on rapid economic growth to solve local environmental and political problems. Incomes in the island nation are predicted to double or even triple over the next five to 10 years.
One strategy, officials say, is to attract a smaller number of high-spending tourists to Sri Lanka who will have less impact on the environment than mass package tourism but contribute more to the economy.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa, currently on a visit to the UK and due to speak at the Oxford Union tomorrow night, is also relying on improved living standards to head off any resentment among the minority Tamil population, who are concentrated in the poorer north and east of the country. Rajapaksa remains popular with the Sinhala majority in Sri Lanka, particularly in rural areas and in the south.