Abstract:
Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wildness into built
environment such as buildings, settlements and semi natural habitats such as arable fields, pasture and
managed woods. It has also been defined as “The arrangements, activities and inputs people under take
in a certain land cover type to produce, change or maintain it” (FAO 1997, FAO/UNEP 1999). It is
indeed a necessity to examine the land use of the Thoppur Area in the context of physical and
anthropogenic aspects. The study area is a Sub-Divisional Secretariat that is located in the Trincomalee
District of Eastern Province of Sri Lanka in Asian Region. The study is done with the objective of
identifying post-war land use change in Thoppur Sub-Divisional Secretariat area, to identify the causes
for the land use change and to identify the socio-environmental & economic consequences. The
research has been undertaken with the primary and secondary data sources to focus on both qualitative
and quantitative data analysis. The primary data were collected through questionnaires as well as
personal observations and by interviewing stakeholders. The primary data used in the study was thus
taken from a social survey of households using questionnaires. Secondary data were collected from the
published and unpublished sources. Moreover Paddy cultivation, Chena cultivation, water resources,
forest resources, human-elephant conflict, livestock farming, settlements and road network were
analyzed comprehensively in order to find out the objectives of the research.
