Tribal leaders warn of an organized tourism racket exploiting Vedda culture, deceiving foreign visitors, and damaging one of Sri Lanka’s oldest indigenous communities.
Tribal leader Vishwa Keerthi Vanaspathi, known as Uruwarigaye Vannila Atto, has alleged that a group of racketeers is exploiting tourists who visit the Dambana tribal village by spreading false information about Vedda heritage and collecting large sums of money.
Speaking at a media conference to raise awareness about the ongoing fraud, he said organized groups are misrepresenting tribal culture for profit. According to him, the indigenous Vedda community, which traces its roots back nearly 48,000 years, has survived in small pockets of the country with great difficulty. He warned that commercialization and deception now threaten the very survival of this cultural heritage.
“A group of fraudsters has emerged, based on the Dambana tribal village, who are deceiving people and selling tribal culture by saying that they are not in the country. The tribal generation living in this country has been a generation that has been around for about 48,000 years. This generation has been preserved with great difficulty in a few very small areas of the country. Now this generation is being destroyed. A group has emerged who are selling and eating this culture. It is a great harm to the existence of this generation.”
He further explained that both local and foreign tourists are intercepted near Dambana Junction by individuals claiming to act as guides or translators. These groups allegedly force vehicles to stop, enter them, and mislead visitors with fabricated stories about tribal life. Tourists are reportedly charged inflated fees for staged tribal dances and are sold adulterated honey marketed as authentic forest honey.
Vannila Atto emphasized that while the financial loss may seem minor, the long term cultural damage to the Vedda community is severe. He urged visitors to be cautious and avoid falling prey to such tourism scams.
