Sri Lanka counts nuisance wildlife in bid to protect crops

Sri Lanka carried out a nationwide census Saturday of nuisance wildlife, including monkeys and peacocks, in a bid to prepare countermeasures to protect crops, officials said. 

Some 40,000 local officials were deployed to count wild boar, lorises, peacocks, and monkeys near farms and homes during a five-minute period on Saturday. Officials say more than a third of crops are destroyed by wild animals, including elephants, which are protected by law as they are considered sacred. 

While elephants are major raiders of rice farms and fruit plantations, they were not counted in Saturday's census. Sri Lanka removed several species from its protected list in 2023, including all three of its monkey species as well as peacocks and wild boars, allowing farmers to kill them.