Sri Lanka's first ever census of crop enemy animals released

Colombo, Jun 12 (PTI) Sri Lanka's first ever animal census aimed at gathering data to supplement crop damage mitigation measures on Thursday revealed toque monkeys, peacocks, giant squirrels and purple faced langurs numbered more than 13 million together.

The census data showed there are 5.17 million toque monkeys, 4.24 million peacock, over 2.66 million giant squirrels, and 1.74 million purple faced langurs.

A L Sandika, the chief of the State Agricultural Research Centre, told reporters that the census that was conducted on March 15 with some 40,000 state officials participating in it was aimed at gathering data to supplement crop damage mitigation measures.

Of Sri Lanka's total area of 65,610 sq km, the land under agriculture was 45.46 per cent in 2022 as per the World Bank data. The bank's data also showed that Sri Lanka's human population was 22.03 million in 2023.

Sandika said the central district of Kandy led the highest number for monkeys followed by the south western district of Kegalle. The northern district of Jaffna was the district with the least number of monkeys.

Earlier on March 15, at a designated time in the morning starting at 8:00 am local time, each of the households was asked to fill in a form giving data on the number of the four species that most impact the crop production.

Agriculture officials said that animals had caused Rs 30 billion worth crop damage as per a survey conducted in 2022 over a period of six months.

The census and its connected cost came in for condemnation by certain farmer organisations who had called it a farce.

Agriculture ministry officials on Thursday said the census data will help in ecological research, agricultural planning and also support wildlife management as these species are among those that interact most with the humans and also cause crop losses.

“This data will help us plan mitigation measures better,” said an official. PTI CORR NPK NPK