COLOMBO, June 12, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Sri Lanka counted more than seven million 
monkeys during a census of crop-destroying wildlife, authorities said 
Thursday, after a government minister called the figure "unbelievable".

Agrarian Research and Training Institute (ARTI) Chief Executive A. L. Sandika 
said that the refined data was in line with a previous survey "a few years 
ago", but did not elaborate.

"Initially, we had some issues with the data on monkeys. We had to check 
again to arrive at the final result," Sandika told reporters in Colombo.

Deputy Environment Minister Anton Jayakodi announced last week that the 
census conducted on 15 March -- the first of its kind -- had turned up 
"unbelievable" data that required verification.

Authorities suggested that some enraged farmers might have exaggerated the 
numbers to suggest that the problem was even bigger in the nation of 21 
million people.

Residents across the island were asked to count wild boar, peacocks, monkeys, 
and lorises-a small, largely nocturnal primate-spotted near farms and homes 
during a five-minute period.

The move was aimed at drawing up a national plan to deal with nuisance 
wildlife.

Opposition legislator Nalin Bandara had said the survey was "a complete 
failure, a waste of money".

Officials say more than a third of crops are destroyed by wild animals, 
including elephants, which are protected by law because they are considered 
sacred.

While elephants are major raiders of rice farms and fruit plantations, but 
they were not included in the March count.

The then-agricultural minister proposed in 2023 exporting some 100,000 
macaques to Chinese zoos, but the plan was abandoned following protests from 
environmentalists.

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.