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Villagers to help validate pest count, says Agriculture Ministry
View(s):By Kasun Warakapitiya
The Agriculture Mionistry has devised a new random survey to improve accuracy and validity of the information gathered through the selected problem animal census of March 15.
The census was held to obtain a count of macaques, langurs, giant squirrels and peacocks.
The Ministry has initiated what it called ‘a participatory rural approach’ in randomly selected villages to confirm the validity of the information, because inaccurate numbers had been reported in some areas.
The Ministry-appointed Special Committee for Reducing Damages Caused by Wild Animals is leading the move, while also involving district secretaries, divisional secretaries, district directors of agriculture, divisional agriculture officials, grama niladhari as well as agriculture officers of grama niladhari divisions.
Hemantha Aamarasinghe, director (agriculture technology) who is also a member of the committee said that apart from state officials, villagers are asked to help.
Despite the Department of Wildlife Conservation pointing out that there can only be 35 to 40 monkeys in a troop, some villages recorded 100 monkeys in a troop.
“In areas such as Monaragala and Anuradhapura, some villages recorded extremely high numbers,’’ he said.
Mr Amarasinghe said validity confirmation began on Thursday from Anuradhapura Both state officials and villagers confirm the accuracy of the counts.
“It would take at least a month for this process in randomly selected villages in other districts. In addition to the count, officials are also instructed to record ideas of villagers on controlling animal numbers as well as their observations,” he said.
He said villagers had already pointed out that lack of natural predators such as jackals had contributed to the increase in peacock population.
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