indigenous peoples from their traditional territories, the degradation of their traditional environment, and rising poverty and migration. 2 Under the Multipurpose Mahaweli Development Project, the government of Sri Lanka declared several National Parks, which are prohibited for entry by humans such as Maduruoya National Park due to which indigenous people of the areas who used the area for hunter - gatherer mode of existence were very badly affected. A few years ago, the Department of Wildlife Conservation issued Identity Cards to the Veddha people. They can use this Identity Card to enter prohibited National Parks and engage in their traditional way of life on a limited scale, but this system was not functioning smoothly due to some practical difficulties. The participation of the Veddha people in education sector is very low. Among the indigenous people, the adaptability to a new language is an issue and also there is a huge problem with the availability of resources. Children of Veddha people are compelled to receive an education in either Sinhala or Tamil languages as Sinhala and Tamil languages are the national Languages of Sri Lanka. Schools that the Veddha people’s children attend have very low educational facilities and lack teachers. Movement from traditional lands due to national development projects has negatively affected the spiritual life of indigenous people. Most of the groups of indigenous people’s original faith is animism which is linked to traditional lands. The sites considered sacred by the indigenous people in terms of their own religious and belief systems have been desecrated or destroyed by large-scale development projects. Due to the internal migration of the members of the community, traditional leaders cannot keep the community under traditional administration. The Monitoring & Review Division started a provincial survey on indigenous people in Sri Lanka, which covered all Divisional Secretariats of Uva, Eastern and North Central 2 The report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples in Asia of 1st November 2007. 37