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INTRODUCTION
Cyclone Ditwah made landfall in Sri Lanka on 28 November 2025, bringing torrential rainfall to Badulla District and triggering widespread flooding and landslides across its mountainous terrain. Within hours, rivers overflowed and steep slopes collapsed. National reporting in December 2025 indicated that hundreds of homes in Badulla were wiped out by floods and landslides. Infrastructure damage was reported to be severe, particularly in hill-country areas where the collapse of roads and bridges isolated communities and caused significant access constraints.
As of 20 February 2026, DMC reported 17 open and operational formal safety centres in Badulla District hosting 1,777 individuals, alongside a total of 27,523 persons displaced, inclusive of those residing with host families. Badulla ranked as the third most affected district nationally in terms of displacement, following Kegalle and Nuwara Eliya.2 United Nations reporting further indicated that the majority of displaced persons in Badulla District were residing outside formal safety centres and remained unable to return to their areas of origin due to severe housing damage, continued landslide risk, and the need for relocation of households situated within designated high-risk zones. Housing damage was reported to be widespread, with temporary camps established in parts of the district and indications of informal and dispersed displacement arrangements emerging alongside formal sites.
Heavy rainfall persisted into January 2026, sustaining elevated landslide risk across the district, with red warnings extended in Passara, Lunugala, Welimada and other high-risk DS Divisions.4 Media reporting further indicated that entire hamlets were buried and that households dependent on land-based livelihoods, particularly within the tea plantation sector, experienced significant disruption, prompting consideration of alternative or shifted livelihood strategies in affected areas.
While district-level displacement figures and situation updates were available in the immediate aftermath, systematic analysis at DS Division level had not been comprehensively captured. However, return planning, relocation programming, and recovery prioritisation require disaggregated evidence at sub-district level. In this context, a DS Division-level assessment was undertaken to generate granular evidence on displacement trends, return dynamics, persisting sectoral needs, and structural constraints affecting safe return and recovery across Badulla District.