The Wanniyala-Aetto, or "forest beings" (This is the name they call themselves; the commonly known name is "Veddahs" in Sinhalese) are an indigenous people of Sri Lanka, an island nation in the Indian Ocean. They are hunter-gatherers and have lived in their tropical forest environment for the past 18,000 years. They are disappearing rapidly, due to assimilation and the loss of their forest home. Population estimates range from several hundred to a few thousand.
VEDDAHS, or Weddahs (from Sanskrit veddha, " hunter"), a primitive people of Ceylon, probably representing the Yakkos or "demons" of Sanskrit writers, the true aborigines of the island.
The Veddahs exhibit the phenomenon of a race living the wildest of savage lives and yet speaking an Aryan dialect.
The Veddahs are not to be confounded with the Rodiyas of the western uplands, who are a much finer race, tall, wellporportioned, with regular features, and speak a language said to be radically distinct from all the Aryan and Dravidian dialects current in Ceylon.
In 1983 under the accelerated Mahaweli Development Scheme, several Veddah families including those of Kalu Appu and Sudu Bandiya were induced by Government authorities to abandon their traditional forest settlement in the Dambana region and to move onto goverment colonies.
Surely, he says, the Veddah people have proven themselves to be the forest's best friends and protectors in stark contrast to officials who, he alleges, have systematically exploited the forests that they took away from the Veddahs.
The stubborn refusal of the Veddahs to be colonized and assimulated into modern society has left officials puzzled and confused, while the Veddahs themselves are equally uncertain of what to expect from the Government after so many years of unfulfilled promises.
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