The Hon. Namal Karunaratne - Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Livestock

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, on behalf of the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation, I answer as follows.

¶ 02 (a) (i) The animal census was conducted on 2025.03.15.

¶ 03 (ii) Expenditure: - Printing of schedules (Government Press): Rs. 2,478,000 - Newspaper advertisements: Rs. 65,844 - Administrative expenses for distribution of schedules to the public through District Secretariats (Rs. 48,000 per district): Rs. 1,200,000 - Pre-census expense: Rs. 18,030 - Transport: Rs. 154,440 Total: Rs. 3,916,314

¶ 04 Contrary to false publicity that over Rs. 70 million was spent, the total actual expenditure was Rs. 3,916,314.

¶ 05 (iii) As no such census had been conducted previously, the primary objective was to identify appropriate measures and prepare recommendations to minimize crop losses by studying populations of pest wildlife that inflict heavy damage on food crop cultivations.

¶ 06 (iv) A nationwide population survey was carried out on species considered to be the most damaging and frequently encroaching on fields, namely toque macaques (rilawa), purple-faced langurs (vandura), giant squirrels (dandu lena) and peafowl (monara). To prevent duplication, the count was conducted simultaneously across the island by household members and government representatives at public places. After receipt of results from District Secretariats by April 2025, verification processes were undertaken. The Committee for Preparing Recommendations to Minimize Wildlife Damage to Food Crops decided, based on verification, that approximately 50% of the numbers reported by the public for monkeys and langurs were accurate; therefore, 50% of the reported figures were taken as the corrected values for the purpose of recommendations.

¶ 07 (v) Post-verification, mapping was undertaken by area to identify species distribution and risk zones, enabling identification of districts with higher populations, the respective Divisional Secretariat Divisions within them, and down to the Grama Niladhari Divisions with higher densities. The complete official national report has been finalized and made public.

¶ 08 (vi) According to the official charts for the National Animal Census: - Langurs: 5,197,517 - Monkeys: 1,747,623 - Giant squirrels: 2,666,630 - Peafowl: 4,285,745

¶ 09 Note: Civets/porcupines were not covered in this survey and may be considered in future work.

¶ 10 (b) (i) As per District Secretaries, the census was conducted in all Grama Niladhari Divisions of the island except the Delft Island area in Jaffna District.

¶ 11 (ii) In Delft Island, the census was not conducted in 06 GN Divisions.

¶ 12 (iii) The four species under consideration do not inhabit Delft Island.

¶ 13 (c) Not applicable.