Desertion rates soar in the Sri Lankan army, but as the military closes in on the Tigers, its new tactic of amnestying deserters seems to be working to some extent.
Just five months ago, a 29-year-old infantry soldier in the Sri Lankan army's 12 Gajaba Regiment exchanged fire with fighters from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in their stronghold in the island's northern Vanni region.
"The ground was shaking and shrapnel flew everywhere," he recalls, speaking to ISN Security Watch in Kurunegala District.
"Corpses lay everywhere. It was a bloody, bloody scene."
A bullet ricocheted off the back of his skull and got lodged in his upper shoulder.
Now as fighting intensifies in Vanni, Mahendran has received marching orders. Barely recuperated, he packs his suitcase in his mud-and-clay hut, preparing to return to the battlefield.
The Sri Lankan army claims it is now within just over a kilometer of Kilinochchi, the LTTE’s de-facto capital, and the island's ethnic war is now reaching a decisive showdown.
As its troops push eastward into the interiors of LTTE-held territory in Vanni, determined to crush the Tigers, the government is leaving no stone unturned to win this war that has simmered for a quarter century.
It is calling back wounded battle-hardened soldiers like Mahendran.
And just this month, the Sri Lankan government announced it was increasing its defense budget by 6 percent from the previous year to SL Rs 177 billion (US$1.6 billion), a major chunk of which is being used to intensify army recruitment drives across the island, and even re-recruiting deserters by offering them amnesty pardons if they agree to return to the frontlines.
As fighting gets fiercer in the north, the army is whetting a large appetite for fresh recruits.
It launched its fourth recruitment drive in January this year, which will continue until 31 December.
So far, it has reportedly recruited 10,136 soldiers.
According to army spokesperson Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, the army is currently looking to recruit another 24,000 during the next few months.
Already, the strength of the Sri Lankan army has swollen to 140,000 in recent years, which makes it larger than the British army in terms of personnel.
In recent months, the Sri Lankan Defense Ministry has been sending a nationwide text message imploring the country's youth to join the defense forces: "Young Patriots - come join with our armed forces and be a part of a winning team."
Many in an obscure, impoverished village in this district in central
The soldiers interviewed by ISN Security Watch requested that the name of the village not be published, fearing they could be tracked down and censured for talking to the press.
In this dusty, bucolic village, dirt roads remain pitted with bone-jarring potholes, water shortages are common, the power supply is erratic and the nearest hospital is a good 48 kilometers away.
Seeking a path out of the grinding poverty - and unable to scrape a living from the slivers of paddy farms in this arid region - the entrenched 25-year-old war has become a career for hundreds of this village's youth from over 400 families.
Roughly half the men of fighting age have enlisted in the army, navy, police or other security branches.
Mahendran joined the army in 2002, and with his army salary, he bought a 19-inch color TV and a mobile phone and is planning to build a concrete house with electricity and a hand water pump in his backyard.
Mahendran's elderly father, who goes by the name of Tushara, says he lives in a perpetual state of anxiety when his son is out on the frontlines.
Almost every month a corpse returns from the Vanni battle field and a pall of gloom envelopes the village.
In the last six months alone, seven bodies were returned.
"If there were any other job opportunities, I wouldn't let my son go to the battle field," he says.
In recent years, the Sri Lankan army has been plagued by a high level of desertions, a problem that has only been exacerbated as fighting intensifies, say military analysts.
But in desperate need for manpower to win this war, the government has also occasionally announced amnesty periods during which times deserters can rejoin the forces without penalty.
In 2007, the army, short of man power, announced an amnesty pardon for soldiers who had gone absent without leave since 2003.
This amnesty apparently resulted in the reinstatement of thousands of deserters.
By the government's own admission, during the last 6 months 4,004 army deserters have reported back to their units.
It launched an island-wide operation to track down and arrest its deserters who refused to re-join the army, and 2,984 soldiers and 21 officers who refused to report back have been arrested for deserting and will be tried in court.
If convicted, they could serve up to three years in prison.
The army refuses to acknowledge that desertion is a serious problem.
The army commander for
"Most of them are soldiers who went absent without leave," he adds, saying a majority of them willingly return to the frontlines once offered an amnesty pardon.
However, the re-recruitment of deserters bewilders a leading Colombo-based military analyst who requested anonymity, fearing reprisals.
"If the army is really winning this war, as it claims it is, why are so many soldiers deserting the army?" he asks.
"No one would want to desert a victorious army, no?"
The army is creating a dangerous delusion of an imminent victory, he told ISN Security Watch.
Adept at guerrilla tactics, the Tigers won't go down without severely bleeding the army.
Over the past year, the Tigers have suffered a series of reverses on the battlefield.
Now, the Sri Lankan military is at their doorstep in the north, making rapid advances into Tiger-controlled territory.
But even though the Tigers have lost vast swathes of their territory, it is speculated that the Tigers still have thousands of hardened fighters.
As war reaches full-throttle in Vanni - on land, air and sea - the army is bracing itself for a possible chemical attack by the Tigers as it inches toward Kilinochchi.
The war is expected to get even bloodier in the last few kilometers.
There are about 200,000 civilians currently trapped in the Vanni battle zone.
"If the Tigers force the civilians to flee in all directions then the army will not be able to separate 15,000 Tigers from 200,000 civilians," the military analyst says.
"This may lead to a bloodbath and help the LTTE to escape to another part of
In Mahendran's hamlet, residents shelter at least six deserters.
Every time the military police raids the village looking for them, they sidle out of the hamlet into hiding in the near by paddy fields, residents revealed.
"The Tigers have survived for 25 long years. It's not so easy to crush them," says Priyantha, 28, who has deserted the army twice, the first time in 2000.
He rejoined in 2002, only to leave again in 2006.
He says he abandoned the army for "personal reasons."
His family acknowledged he "couldn't cope with the bloodshed."
Currently living off farming, he leads a precarious life, always fretful of being caught by the police for abandoning the army.
"Prabhakaran is a brutal man," Priyantha says. "If he goes down, he'll take thousands of soldiers with him."
Anuj Chopra is a freelance journalist whose stories have appeared in The Christian Science Monitor and The San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications. Chopra lives just outside Mumbai in
