State Lands and Land Laws: A Hand Book
Conference Papers & Reports
November, 2015
Sri Lanka
The state owns over 80% of the land in Sri Lanka. The remainder is owned by private parties. Under the State Lands Encroachments Ordinance, all waste lands, forest lands, unoccupied and uncultivated lands are presumed to belong to the state until the contrary is proved (section 7) and all cinnamon land which have been uninterruptedly possessed by the state for over 30 years are held and deemed to belong to the state (section 6).