News
Massive crop damage caused by wild animals
By Nimal Gunathilake
Wildlife destruction has caused significant damage to Sri Lanka’s agriculture, with wild boar, porcupine, and monkeys responsible for a staggering loss of 55.3 billion rupees in 2022 and 2023, says Anuradha Tennakoon, Chairman of the National Farmers’ Federation.
He said that the animals destroyed approximately 86.7 million coconuts, valued at 5.2 billion rupees, impacting 17.5% of the country’s total coconut yield, which covers 140,450 hectares. In addition to coconut damage, these animals also harmed 25% of the rice crops, 11% of maize, and 7% of vegetables.
Wild boar and monkeys alone are responsible for the destruction of 131 million kilograms of rice, 169 million kilograms of bananas, and 6.8 million kilos of maize, leading to losses of 13.2 billion, 22.1 billion, and 10.3 billion rupees respectively. Furthermore, they destroyed 59.7 million kilograms of vegetables worth 4.5 billion rupees.
The Uva Province experienced the highest damage, with 45,000 hectares affected, while other provinces including Western, Central, Southern, Eastern, and North Western also saw substantial losses. The Northern Province lost 16,000 hectares.
Tennakoon expressed concern over the growing populations of these animals and criticized the lack of intervention from authorities in managing the wildlife damage.
He warned that without modern technological solutions to control human-wildlife conflict, farmers may soon face the grim reality of abandoning their livelihoods.
By AJA Abeynayake
The Attorney General informed the Supreme Court on Thursday (27) that Rs. 245 million from the funds obtained from the respondents, as per the verdict delivered on 12 January 2023 by a seven-judge bench led by the Chief Justice, had been paid as compensation to the victims of the Easter Sunday attacks. The case stemmed from fundamental rights petitions filed against the respondents’ failure to prevent the coordinated attacks. To monitor the disbursement of these funds, 13 related fundamental rights petitions were taken up on Thursday before a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Murdu Fernando, Justices S. Thurairaja, and A.H.M.D. Nawaz. Representing the Attorney General, Additional Solicitor General Viveka Siriwardena informed the court that Rs. 311 million had been allocated for compensation, of which Rs. 245 million had already been distributed among 412 individuals, including the families of 215 deceased victims.
She further stated that Rs. 65 million from the allocated funds was expected to be used for victims’ medical treatment and for the care of affected elderly individuals.
President’s Counsel Shamil Perera and Sanjeeva Jayawardena, appearing on behalf of Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, and the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, respectively, told the court that they had not yet received detailed reports on the compensation payments.
Chief Justice Fernando asked the Additional Solicitor General why those reports had not been provided to the relevant parties. The Additional Solicitor General responded that the proceedings were focused on monitoring the disbursement of compensation to victims.
The Chief Justice, however, noted that withholding those reports from the petitioners did not align with the objectives of the case. She ordered that the reports be immediately provided to the Cardinal and the other petitioners.The court scheduled the next hearing of the petitions for 21 May.
…. Gnanakka also received Rs. 28 mn
Chief Government Whip Minister Nalinda Jayathissa said on Thursday that the Ranil Wickremesinghe government had spent an additional Rs. 1,125 million as compensation for individuals whose houses were destroyed in 2022.
That was in addition to the Rs. 1,221 million paid to politicians as compensation, Minister Jayatissa said, revealing that an astrologer called Gnanakka from Anuradhapura had received Rs. 28 million in compensation for her Devalaya destroyed by mobs in 2022. (SI)
By Saman Indrajith
During yesterday’s parliamentary session, Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya disclosed the expenditure incurred by the state on foreign trips undertaken by Sri Lanka’s Presidents.
Mahinda Rajapaksa’s foreign trips between 2010 and 2014 cost Rs 3,572 million. His successor, Maithripala Sirisena spent Rs 384 million on overseas travel from 2015 to 2019. Gotabaya Rajapaksa spent Rs. 126 million from 2019 to 2022, while President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s foreign travel between 2023 and 2024 cost the state Rs 533 million.
In contrast, the current president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, had spent only Rs 1.8 million on foreign travel since assuming office in September 2024, the PM said.
The Prime Minister highlighted that the most expensive year for presidential foreign travel during that period was 2013, when Mahinda Rajapaksa’s trips alone amounted to an unprecedented Rs 1,144 million.
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