Research has been carried out to investigate the different types of mitochondrial DNA the phylogenetic, principal coordinate, and molecular variance results of 271 people who each represent one of the five ethnic groups. According to the findings, the Vedda inhabited a position distinct from all of the other ethnic people who lived on the island. They have formed relatively close affiliations among themselves, which suggests that the Vedda has a separate origin from the former. According to the haplotypes and the results of the analysis of the molecular variance, the mitochondrial sequences of the Vedda people are more closely connected to those of the Sinhalese and the Sri Lankan Tamils. Surprisingly, the most haplotype sharing was discovered between Vedda and Up-country Sinhalese and Low-country Sinhalese. However, there was no haplotype exchange between the Vedda and any of the Tamils.

(Source: Journal of Human Genetics 59,28-36, 2014)

The Veddas were originally forest dwellers who foraged, hunted, and resided in small groups in caves in the thick forests of the country. They were moving from one cave to another when one of the group members perished. After a death, they gathered around a large tree to pray for the deceased offering wild meat, honey, and wild tubers to their ancestors and the deities of the trees, rivers, and jungles. They prayed for their afterlife, believing that their souls would be given to the deities and that they would care for them.

All family activities have taken place in and around these caverns. Children and women slept inside the cave, while men slept on a platform surrounded by boulders outside the cave. Wild boars, deer, or rabbits that they hunted in the forest to eat were burned near the cave.

They hunt and gather in the forests that they live in to make a living. Wild honey is one of the most important foods for the Vedda. To get it, they climb trees where the beehives are and burn dry leaves to scare the bees away. They go on a two-month honey hunt every year around June. They only take rice, salt, and chili from outside. They hunt or gather everything else they eat.

The older kids went to the jungle with their parents. They showed them where to find food and water and where the caves were. They showed them the streams that never ran out of water. The parents teach them how to recognise animals by their smells, such as an elephant or a wild bear. The most important thing was that boys were taught how to use a bow and arrow and how to hunt and gather wild honey in the right way.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, most of Vedda people lived as hunter-gatherers and gathered food from forests. Their culture includes their own language, wearing a sarong, being naked above the waist, and carrying an axe over their shoulders. They also follow traditional religious rites, such as worshipping the Na Yakku, or souls of the dead. Over time, some Vedda groups integrated into local societies across the island.

However, the displacement, cultural change, and assimilation that occurred during the middle of the 20th century were sped up as a result of irrigation and development projects that began in the area where they once lived. These development initiatives resulted in forced evictions and relocation to government reserve villages, and the government encouraged their relocation to new rice-growing villages. Those who moved had no choice but to become part of Sinhalese society and marry Sinhalese people. The Vedda people's current dialects are recognised as a hybrid language that combines earlier Vedda languages with Sinhala.

However, some Vedda families didn't want to move to the farming villages, so they left and went to live in caves in different locations, staying true to their old ways. At the present time, there are fewer than a few hundred people, specifically between 200 and 300 individuals, who continue to adhere to the traditional way of life of the Vedda people and continue to reside in the jungle as they always do.

Unfortunately, the surviving Vedda people have completely abandoned their heritage and lost their identity as a result of a combination of factors, including mounting economic pressures, assimilation into the dominant culture, and a shrinking living space that gets smaller every year.

The Veddas, the final indigenous people of Sri Lanka, who traditionally lived as hunter-gatherers and forest-dwellers, may in reality become extinct within the next generation and may eventually become relics of Sri Lanka's past.

Click here to see the tour plan to meet Veddas