 The Tip of Point Pedro
by Nilma Dole
Now open to visitors after the
dawn of peace, Point Pedro is the northernmost town of the island of Sri
Lanka, located on the tip of the country. Christened by the Portugese,
the agriculturally fertile land surrounding Point Pedro consists of
calcic red latosols and is renowned for its cotton production. The
eastern coast of Point Pedro is a 3-mile-broad beach with huge sand
dunes (regosols) that can reach up to 100 feet in height, extending up
all the way to Thalayady spanning a length of 20 miles.
 The porous regosols region with a deep ground water table has a
billion litres of fresh water supply which can supply the part of Jaffna.
The Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 caused a dramatic impact by raising the
salt content of the ground water.
The sea wiped out parts of the town and sea water stayed there for up
to 4 feet in height.
The town has been back under government control since 1995 after the
Sri Lankan Army recaptured it from the LTTE.
Point Pedro Harbour might be small but it is controlled to this day
by the Sri Lanka armed forces where the public is allowed to fish under
close supervision.
The Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project expected to be built soon
will no doubt increase the productivity of the Point Pedro Harbour and
the enlargement of the harbour will bring benefits to Sri Lanka.
The nearby Vallipuram (Sandy City) Temple was a complex of
Hindu-Buddhist temples on Angkor Wat model and was a visiting place for
Chinese and Indonesian vessels. There are also many Catholic churches
built around Point Pedro along the coasts and in Nelliady.
 Major Dutch developments came with Father Phillipus Baldeus. His
records and his book on Jaffna were published in Netherlands in Dutch
and later in Germany in German.
There is a stone inscription written about Baldeus and his Bible
teaching under the Tamarind tree (which was uprooted by the 1962
cyclone).
Major English developments came here with the establishment of
missionary schools like Hartley College and Methodist Girls High School
by the Wesleyan Missionaries. |
