Yala: Where the Tiger roamed

The LTTE overrunning the tiny army detachment at Talgasmankada in Yala killing six army personnel and wounding another last Monday evening was not only to send a political message to the Government of what they are capable of doing almost in the home district of President Mahinda Rajapksa, but also to cripple the economy of the region.

The attack came just a day prior to the reopening of the park after its annual September closure during the driest period of the year for the region. In nearby Tissamaharama traders were already complaining of a drastic drop in business. There was a sharp drop in the thousands of pilgrims who often stop at Tissamaharama daily to/ from the sacred city of Kataragama after Monday’s attack and further casualties caused in the following two days from explosions of mines the Tigers had managed to lay there prior to their quick withdrawal.

One leading trader said he had already curtailed replenishing stocks as his goods were hardly moving. In our presence a sales representative from a leading soft drink supplier was turned away citing the same reason. Some of the few foreign tourists who had come there specifically to visit the park with its planned reopening on Tuesday too suddenly decided to skip the region. Conrad de la Motte, Manager of the 62-roomed Three Star Yala Village situated within the park’s buffer zone told The Sunday Times that he had 20 odd rooms occupied entirely by foreigners at the time of the attack, but by the following day the occupancy dropped to just ten rooms.

Conrad said the business was about to pick up after adverse publicity in recent months regarding the country’s security situation virtually killed the industry when the latest blow struck, but he was hopeful things would pick up by December. According to industry sources although African safari destinations were big compared to Yala, our park is popular with foreign visitors due to their being able to view a large variety of animals and birds no sooner entering the park.

More than hundred jeeps which take tourists on tours of the park too are left high and dry. Moreover about 60 trackers working for the park, along with the drivers of these jeeps are the worst hit by the closure of the park At times the business had been so good for the park in the past, that there weren’t enough trackers to accompany the large number of tour parties that descended especially on weekends.

At such times, according to Park sources one tracker was assigned to about three or four jeeps, instead of the usual practice of one per jeep. Though the authorities responsible had obviously failed to take appropriate action to either prevent the attack entirely or to at least give a warning of the impending danger, the Army now appears to be well prepared to tackle any further immediate threats in the vicinity with a major general directing operations from the park itself. When we visited the park and especially where the incidents had taken place, we saw Maj. Gen Sanath Karunaratne, who is the GOC in command of the 11 Division based in Panagoda having taken personal charge of counter operations against Tigers at Yala. He was seen busy visiting all parts of the Park, including where incidents have taken place.

Army also appeared to be in the process of commandeering some of the bungalows in the park for in-depth operations to clear any remaining mines before giving the go-ahead for the reopening of the Park. Even before we visited the Park, we heard from sources in the region that there were some indications about the presence of Tigers, but as happened prior to previous attacks in the 80s and 90s, no one in authority had done anything to follow up on those leads.

Assistant Director of Wild Life Yala- Kataragama, B.D.R. Jayaratne, when pressed to speak up confirmed that there were two specific incidents that had been reported. On October 8 a Wild Life Guard Post at Galamuna had been broken into and log books maintained by the guards had been removed along with a few days supply of provisions stored there. Then on October 11 near Galge (cave) at Yahangala in Block three villagers who had gone hunting had reported seeing suspicious outsiders. Later when these suspicious sightings were investigated they had found empty plastic water bottles and biscuit wrappers at the site. It is suspected that some of these hunters too would have supplied provisions to the attackers for money.

People in the region ask why the police or the army intelligence failed to infiltrate the areas with their own “hunters”, as prior to almost all previous LTTE attacks there had been similar ground reconnoitering by the LTTE for gathering food and intelligence. We do not know whether the regional authorities had the resources and men to follow up on such leads. So it is up to the higher-ups to get to the bottom of this.

It must also be said that the few soldiers posted to the region had to cover a vast region therefore to say they were overstretched would be an understatement.We can, however recall a somewhat similar incident that took place back in October 1997. When the late Ven Unawatune Chief Incumbent of the historic Sithulpahuwa temple situated inside the Park got to know either from illicit timber racketeers or hunters exact details about a band of Tigers moving to Kataragama to stage an attack there, he immediately informed a top army officer in the region to lay an ambush, the reply he got from this senior army officer was: “the Kataragama police will look after that side we will look after this side”.

And as a result the attacking Tigers destroyed virtually the entire bus depot at Kataragama and escaped. Later the brave monk publicly denigrated the military men posted there as being army’s cooks, waiters and barbers, who are incapable of doing anything else.