Beyond the Debris: Why Cyclone Ditwah Demands a Post-Disaster Anthropology for Sri Lanka
Abstract
The impact of Cyclone Ditwah extends significantly beyond the immediate destruction of physical infrastructure; it explains the systemic social fractures and inequalities that define Sri Lanka’s vulnerability to extreme weather events. As of December 12, 2025, the disaster has pervaded all 25 districts, adversely affecting a population of 1,637,960 individuals (DMC, 2025). With confirmed fatalities reaching 640 and an additional 211 individuals reported missing, the crisis demonstrates the theoretical framework established by Oliver-Smith (1996), which hypothesizes that disasters are not solely natural occurrences but are fundamentally social processes shaped by historical context, power relations, and inequality.
Furthermore, the extensive material damage, revealing in the total destruction of 5,713 residences and partial damage to 104,805 others provides empirical evidence that vulnerability is structurally generated before the emergence of environmental hazards. The displacement crisis emphasizes this reality: currently, 82,813 individuals (comprising 26,103 families) remain displaced, suffering in 847 government run safety centers across the island. To understand the current crisis, one must look beyond the immediate meteorological event to how history, economics, and politics have controlled whose lives, where, and in what conditions. In Sri Lanka, the "disaster" is not merely the wind or rain; it is the unsafe landscape that specific populations were forced into long before the storm arrived.
