As crop-raiding animals reach an all-time high, food-crisis hit Sri Lanka looks for solutions
As crop-raiding animals reach an all-time high, food-crisis hit Sri Lanka
looks for solutions
Malaka Rodrigo, Mongabay India
March 21, 2023
See link
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/as-crop-raiding-animals-reach-an-all-time-high-food-crisis-hit-sri-lanka-looks-for-solutions/
for photos.
Arjuna Jinadasa owns a plot of land full of coconut trees in Kurunegala, in
northwestern Sri Lanka, where he enjoys a good produce of about 3,000
coconuts a month. With Sri Lanka’s traditional cuisine heavily reliant on
coconut milk, it’s a crop with high demand. Jinadasa has made healthy
profits from his plantation until recently — when daily aerial attacks by
monkeys started to impact the harvest.
“These monkeys destroy at least 200 young coconuts daily, and now my
monthly yield is reduced to about 250 coconuts,” says Jinadasa. The farmer
tried many non-lethal methods to keep the raiding monkeys away, but the
success was short-lived, as the primates got used to them.
Sri Lanka has three species of monkeys, but the endemic toque macaque
(Macaca sinica) is also the most problematic. Coconut plantations in many
areas are also often subjected to aerial attacks by grizzled giant
squirrels (Ratufa macroura), as they eat young coconuts. Sri Lanka’s
minister of agriculture, Mahinda Amaraweera, says nearly 100 million
coconuts are destroyed by monkeys and giant squirrels each year, causing a
loss of about 6,638 million Sri Lankan rupees ($19.3 million).
Amaraweera makes this comment based on a preliminary estimate of crop
damage caused by wild animals compiled by the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian
Research and Training Institute. The report is based on data gathered by
the Agrarian Development Department, and it lists coconut as the
worst-affected crop, followed by paddy, vegetables, corn and bananas. The
toque macaque tops the list of crop raiders, followed by wild boar (Sus
scrofa), Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus),
giant squirrel (Ratufa macroura) and Indian porcupine (Hystrix indica).
Toque macaques and giant squirrels cause the worst damage to coconuts,
while elephants, wild boars and peafowl mainly target paddy (rice), Sri
Lanka’s staple food. Porcupines tend to damage young coconut plants and
vegetables.
Massive Financial Loss
The report estimates the financial loss caused by crop damage due to wild
animals in the first half of 2022 as a massive 30,215 million Sri Lankan
rupees ($87.5 million). “Sri Lanka is facing a severe economic crisis, and
the recorded crop devastation intensifies the food crisis we already face
here. The government is looking for ways to reduce the population of
identified wild animals considered agricultural pests,” Amaraweera tells
Mongabay.
In this backdrop, there have been many queries about the government being
compelled to consider culling as a solution. “We haven’t decided yet, but
we need to urgently find ways to control these pests,” Amaraweera says.
The intensification of human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka is also linked
to crop raiding. Elephants cause substantial crop damage, especially to
paddy and bananas; but even though the problem continues to escalate, the
animal’s status as an endangered species makes it difficult to find easy
solutions and calls for urgent and alternative management practices,
Amaraweera says.
In December 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture convened a meeting of experts
from a variety of fields including naturalists, farmers and
environmentalists to discuss solutions. “This is a complex problem that
doesn’t have simple, ready-made solutions,” says Buddhi Marambe of the
Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Peradeniya, who led the
committee proceedings. There are different types of stakeholders and
different opinions, but all agree that these troublesome, crop-damaging
animal populations need to be controlled, Marambe tells Mongabay.
The committee is continuing to discuss many possible solutions ranging from
translocations to sterilization and deterrence methods, but recommendations
are yet to come, says Marambe.
“We agree there is a serious need for some effective controlling
mechanisms, but these solutions must be based on scientific study, “says
well-known environmentalist Hemantha Withanage of the Center for
Environmental Justice. “We first need to identify whether these animal
populations have actually increased or animals have moved from the wilds to
human habitats”.
Withanage says it is necessary to enrich the habitats of protected forests
so at least the problematic animals near the forest edges can be chased
back to their natural habitats. Losing the ecological balance could also be
a contributory factor to the problem. A reduction in natural predators can
increase these pest populations. An example is the significant reduction in
Sri Lankan jackal (Canis aureus naria) populations, which has led to
thriving peafowl populations, he says.
It is not just crop damage; these animals also harass villagers, so their
grievances, too, must be considered when seeking solutions, adds Withanage,
pointing out that the toque macaque’s problem particularly goes well beyond
crop damage. Monkeys swoop into houses, stealing food and messing up
households, making it difficult for people to leave doors and windows open
during the day, says Dilan Chathuranga. Even if we block the entrances,
these highly intelligent primates find some way to get inside. Only those
who face this situation understand the suffering, Chathuranga tells
Mongabay.
Sterilization Programs
Ashoka Dangolla of the veterinary faculty at the University of Peradeniya
has been trying to deal with the problem for more than two decades and says
the translocation approach does not work. The main method used is the
sterilization of female monkeys and their subsequent releasing back to the
troops. It is an uphill task, but it can bear long-term results, Dangolla
says.
“First, you need to catch them, and then take them for surgery. Initially,
we removed the wombs but monkeys often get the stitches removed and start
bleeding”, he adds. “Now we perform a laparoscopy known as keyhole surgery
to do the sterilization and it is relatively safer,” Dangolla tells
Mongabay.
A monkey troop has an alpha male that earns the right to mate with all the
females in a troop. Theoretically, this alpha male will not allow any other
male to touch the females, so many think that castrating the alpha male can
lead to population control among monkeys and may prove successful. “But
there are young male monkeys that manage to attract females when the alpha
male is not around and take the chance to mate with females, so castrating
only the alpha male may fail,” says Dangolla.
Even though animal controlling mechanisms are carried out in other
countries, it would be a difficult task to execute them in Sri Lanka, where
cultural and religious factors including compassion toward animals are not
easily challenged. Adding further complexity, some of the problematic
animals are also endangered, and the grizzled giant squirrel is Sri Lanka’s
national animal.
The peafowl is considered the vehicle (Vahana) of the Hindu god Skanda and
enjoys special cultural status. Skanda is revered by most Sri Lankans
irrespective of their faith, so people do not want to harm the peacock.
“This is why it needs a scientific approach. We need to analyze the
enormity of the problem, its growth and impact on society and seek a
science-based response. The old thinking can only aggravate the problem,”
says Thasun Amarasinghe, a Sri Lankan herpetologist with the University of
Indonesia.
“If we take the approach of no harm to animals due to religious beliefs,
then one cannot get rid of mice because rat is the vehicle of Ganesh,
another Hindu god,” Amarasinghe says, emphasizing the need to overcome
cultural religious boundaries to find a scientific solution.
Data-Driven Solutions
There should be a data-driven approach to understand the population
dynamics of these problematic species, researchers say. In other countries,
hunting licenses are issued after scientifically assessing populations. For
example, if the number of females increases, then the number that needs to
be controlled would be assessed and certain licenses are issued for hunting
only the permitted number of females. There may be years in which no
hunting licenses are issued if the population is under control, Amarasinghe
tells Mongabay.
Sudden population increases can impact native biodiversity in addition to
crop damage by some of these pests. The peafowl was restricted to Sri
Lanka’s dry zone, but now the bird can be found in the heart of the wet
zone closer to rainforests and even in the hill country near cloud forests.
These are home to a lot of endemic reptiles that peafowl feed on. This
could break the critical ecological balance, Amarasinghe says.
During the past few months, there have been several indications that
despite the enormity of the problem with agricultural pests, the government
would not consider their killing as part of the solution.
“It is dangerous even to give such signals, as the law is not amended yet.
Killing of most of these animals is still illegal,” says Jagath
Gunawardana, an environmental lawyer and naturalist. Gunawardane was also a
member of the committee convened in December 2022 to consider solutions,
but he says even the members of the expert committee were not provided with
the report on crop damage by wild animals. It is important to scrutinize
the report, as the level of crop damage caused by wild animals appears very
high. However, the complete report still has not been shared with the
expert committee, says Gunawardane.