Colombo, Nov 29 (Agency) Wild animals have destroyed 144,989 tonnes of 28 food crops, including paddy and 93 million coconuts, in the first half of 2022 in Sri Lanka. The Daily Mirror newspaper on Tuesday said the findings came from the Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation Ministry. The report said the threat posed to food security is not insignificant in the way that wildlife resists agricultural livelihoods. The Ministry has appointed a committee to study the measures to be taken to prevent damage by wild animals to plantations and forests as well as human-elephant conflict.
Coconuts were the most damaged crop in 2022. Sri Lanka lost 51,816 hectares of coconut plantations in the 21 districts of the island, and the total number of coconuts lost exceeds 93 million nuts. The total land area under coconut cultivation in those areas is 275,540 hectares. Of this, the total extent of coconut land damaged by wild animals is 21 per cent. The damage to coconuts exceeds Rs. 6,638 million. The country also lost 5.6 per cent or 31,922 hectares of the total paddy cultivation area in the 2021/22 season due to animal damage.