Vol. 8 · No. 1 · 2004

Wiveca Stegeborn

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Introduction
Southern Asia is one of the few regions of the world where hunting and gathering communities still exist. Some of these carry on a tradition of hunting and foraging in tropical forests that has developed over many thousands of years (Denslow and Padoch 1988:64). Sri Lanka,sometimes referred to as 'The Tear Drop of India 'is home to one of these now-vanishing forest peoples. If that 'Tear Drop' was shed by anyone, it was most likely by these indigenous people, who call themselves Wanniyala-Aetto [waniya-la-ätto ], meaning 'Forest Beings'. Their traditional life in the forests is threatened by modern nature conservation policy. In the old, tropical dry-zone forest where the ancestors of the Wanniyala-Aetto evolved together with their environment, only flora and fauna are now allowed an undisrupted future. The last 2000 Wanniyala-Aetto face the end of their ancient economic and cultural heritage, sacrificed to 'the global village'. Some, defying the law by returning to their forest to continue a foraging subsistence, are shot and killed by armed park guards,employed by the Department of Wildlife Conservation in Sri Lanka. In this paper I shall provide a brief overview of this people and the imminent threat to their very survival.