Chanaka Bandarage

For most areas, monkeys are a relatively new problem.  In the last 30 years, lots of deforestation  happened. Some forests like Suriyawewa, Lunugamwehara are now extinct. Even the Sinharaja forest is under serious threat.

The degradation and fragmentation of the animal habitats is very real.

Owing to building walking tracks in Bellanwila, Pillawa areas the monkeys who were in those woodlands migrated to thick urban settlements in Boralesgamuwa, Piliyandala etc. Due to bad garbage dumping in these areas, monkeys have easy access to food. They play havoc in these areas.

Monkeys cause enormous crop losses. This amount to many millions of rupees a year.

The NPP government has decided to fix this problem. This is good.

Thanks to the ‘erratic, rapid developments’ by the recent past governments other wildlife like wild boar, peacock and porcupines are now considered vermin.  These innocent creatures can be seen in plenty in urban environments. They get killed on a daily basis. Some people eat their flesh.

Crows are a major problem in Colombo. They carry garbage everywhere. They leave messy droppings that are extremely unhealthy and an eyesore. Crows will not allow to keep the city clean. Singapore has zero crows.

Killing of these animals is the easy way out. Should we do that?

Today, anyone can buy an air rifle. As a result, lots of wildlife culling take place. This was not the case before. Some farmers resort to poisoning monkeys, porcupines, peacocks (and even elephants).

If an alpha monkey male in a troupe, who manages the entire clan is killed, that will be end of the whole group. All will die within a few months.

Do we want to wipe off our monkeys? They have been here much before us.

Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country – we cannot allow the culling of monkeys or any other innocent wildlife. Even the crows must be spared.

We can find humane methods to reduce their numbers.

In Himachal Pradesh, India, monkey numbers are reduced by giving them oral contraceptives.

Sterilization of them is another solution. In the last 20 years, more than 2 lakhs of monkeys have been sterilized in Himachal Pradesh.

Some of our municipal councils have the experience of sterilizing stray dogs. That expertise will be useful in sterilizing monkeys (and other vermin).

Sterilization is effective but it will take 5 -10 years to show real results.  Would the governments be happy to wait that long? Usually government like to show quick results – for vote grabbing.

Community Watch programs is a good method of minimising the monkey and other wild animal menace.

We must not forget that these innocent creatures were forced to wander in to our settlements because we encroached their habitats. Now we demand that they be culled! Let’s hope that the government will have compassion.