Elephant Pass
| Elephant Pass | |
|---|---|
| Northern Province, Sri Lanka | |
 Elephant Pass
|
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| Coordinates | 9°32′50″N 80°24′32″E / 9.54726°N 80.408936°E |
| Type | Military base |
| Site information | |
| Controlled by |
 Sri Lankan Army (1952-2000)Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (2000-2009) Sri Lankan Army (2009-present) |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1952 |
| Battles/wars |
First Battle of Elephant Pass Second Battle of Elephant Pass Third Battle of Elephant Pass |
Elephant Pass, (Tamil: ஆனையிறவு, Sinhalese: අලිමංකඩ Alimankada) Northern Province, Sri Lanka is located in the gateway of Jaffna Peninsula. There are about 340km north from capital to here. It has an important military base and used to be the island's largest salt field. It has regularly been the site of battles during the civil war.
Elephant Pass controls access to the Jaffna Peninsula, therefore it is referred to as the Gateway to Jaffna. It is very crucial as it is on the isthmus connecting the peninsula to the Sri Lankan mainland, and to territory in the Southern Jaffna peninsula. Elephant Pass connects the militarily significant town of Chavakacheri in the Jaffna peninsula to the Sri Lankan mainland.
Elephant Pass has been a strategic military base since 1760, when the Portuguese built a fort, which was later rebuilt and garrisoned by the Dutch in 1776 and later by the British. A modern military base was built there in 1952 by the Sri Lankan Army (SLA). At one time, the base and its outlying camps expanded to cover an area 23 kilometres (14 mi) long and 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) wide.
The base was under SLA control until 2000, despite repeated attempts to capture it by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers). In the First Battle of Elephant Pass in 1991, the LTTE suffered heavy losses while trying to capture the pass. The base was used as a springboard for a number of SLA offensives during the 1990s, including Operation Yal Devi (named after the Colombo-Jaffna train) in September 1993 and Operation Sath Jaya (Truth’s Victory) in July 1996.
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