Pooneryn

Ponerijn in northern Sri Lanka to the west of Elephant Pass was a strategic town for the VOC. For this reason the Company set up an outpost which was intended to guard the link between the coastal road between Mannar and Jaffnapattanam and the fort. Thanks to the redoubt at Ponerijn the VOC was able to combat the smuggling trade between the island and southern India, and also to monitor the sometimes rebellious Vanni tribes. According to the writer and traveller J. Haafner, who journeyed through the area on foot around 1800, the fort here had originally been built by the Portuguese and was captured by the Dutch.