Yesterday, around 40 thousand official employees and volunteers gathered across various regions of Sri Lanka to conduct a large-scale operation to capture wild animals such as elephants, wild boars, and monkeys, which cause damage to agricultural livelihoods and contribute to rising food prices.
In the Anuradhapura district (central part of the country), local residents carried out the operation under the supervision of official representatives. A staff member from the Ministry of Agriculture, Shaminda Dissanayake, reported: "We captured 227 wild boars and 65 wild monkeys." He added: "Everything went very well, participants were engaged, mainly farmers whose crops constantly suffer from these animals."
According to official estimates, about a third of the country's harvest is destroyed or consumed by wild animals, including protected by law elephants, which are considered sacred in Sri Lanka.
The Ministry of Agriculture stated: "The rise in prices for fruits and vegetables could be explained by the harmful influence of these species," listing some of them including wild pigs, monkeys, and elephants.
In 2023, the Minister of Agriculture considered the idea of transporting about 100 thousand monkeys from the country to Chinese zoos but declined this plan after protests from animal rights organizations working on animal welfare.