The island is 26km long by 8km wide and has rich deposits of the mineral ilmenite in its sand.
Mannar is the biggest island at the base of a narrow chain of limestone shoals known as Rama Setu or Adam’s Bridge, which stretches 48 kilometres north-west to join India. There are fears for the island’s fragile ecology, agriculture and fishing areas - and islanders are worried they could be displaced all over again.Ĭompany’s drilling triples estimate of island’s minerals But the trauma still lingers and there are tensions over land.Īgainst this backdrop, an Australian company has a plan to mine Mannar’s sands. Since the war ended in 2009, many displaced Mannar Islanders have returned to re-establish themselves in fishing and farming communities. “Everybody overnight became refugees,” she says. Ms Saroor had already left the island to study in Colombo in 1990 when the Tamil Tigers forced her remaining family off Mannar Island, along with all the other Muslim residents. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fought a 30-year civil war with majority Sinhalese Sri Lankan military, in an attempt to create an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east of the country. “Even though I fondly remember these baobab trees, one thing that I really remember is how … put the mutilated heads of the Indian peacekeeping forces on those trees.” Ms Saroor also remembers climbing the swollen trunks and gnarled branches of the baobab trees - trees synonymous with Africa, Madagascar and Australia’s Kimberley, but also found incongruously on her tiny island. The Vankalai Bird Sanctuary on the southern tip of the island is protected by the Sri Lankan government and has been internationally recognised under the Ramsar Convention for its importance to both local and migratory birds. Up to a million birds stop at Mannar Island, off the north-west coast of Sri Lanka, to feed during the winter. “ them coming and landing in the causeway areas and then catching fish and taking off as a huge group covering the entire sky.” “We would hide somewhere and … we don’t make any noise,” Ms Saroor recalls.
The birds were on their way down the Central Asian flyway - a migration path that crosses 30 countries from Siberia to the Indian Ocean.
It’s also home to the survivors of a 26-year civil war, who are still rebuilding their lives and rely on the island for their subsistence livelihoods.Īn Australian ASX-listed company wants to mine on the island for mineral sands – a booming global industry extracting vital minerals for a multitude of uses.īut Sri Lankan scientists, environmentalists, and human rights activists are concerned about the impact a mine could have, and dismayed about the lack of information on what’s proposed.īy environment reporter Nick Kilvert and Jane Lee for Science FrictionĪs a small child, Shreen Abdul Saroor remembers getting up before dawn with her father to spy on the masses of migratory birds that would visit her island. Up to a million migrating birds seek sanctuary here each year on their gruelling journeys South, and thousands of flamingos call the island home too. Have you heard of Sri Lanka’s Mannar Island? Two thousand flamingos and a war-torn island: controversy over Australian mine proposal Mannar Island is a bird paradise that survived Sri Lanka’s civil war
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