Chennai, Jan 20 (IANS): India should take efforts to stop Sri Lanka from destroying Tamil culture and Hindu religion in the island nation, DMK president M. Karunanidhi has said.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi Saturday, copies of which were released to the media here Sunday, Karunanidhi said: "As the world's largest democracy and a country of diverse languages and religions, India has a moral obligation to stop this atrocity immediately by using its good offices."

Sri Lankan is carrying out an intensive and systematic programme of erasing the Tamil language, culture, religion and diluting the concentration of Tamils in areas where they had historically been predominant, Karunanidhi alleged.

He said the Sri Lankan government is renaming Tamil villages and redrawing village, district and town boundaries while Hindu temples are being razed.

Karunanidhi said the Sri Lankan government is not allocating funds for resettlement and rehabilitation of internally displaced Tamil families.

The Sri Lankan government is promoting "Sinhala settlements on Tamil land and Sinhala takeover of the economic life of Tamil areas, which improvises the Tamils and the deployment of army camps to intimidate the Tamils..."

According to him, 89 Tamil villages have been renamed with Sinhala names, 367 Hindu temples have been demolished and there are 148 mini and 13 army camps in the war-ravaged Mullaitivu district alone.