Abstract:
Primates and humans often come into conflict with each other, especially
when it comes to food. Crop raiding by primates is a major problem, causing
significant damage to crops and leading to the death of the primates
themselves. To assess the impacts of human-monkey conflicts on local
communities and monkey populations in the Ampara District. This study was
conducted in six villages including Ampara, Damana, Lahugala, Pothuvil,
Uhana, and Mahaoya in the Ampara district of Eastern Province, Sri Lanka.
The data was collected from 120 respondents in total from the six villages.
The data was gathered using a face-to-face interview approach with a pretested questionnaire. Monkeys caused significant damage to crops in the
study area, affecting a total of 20 different crop species. The Toque macaque
(Macaca sinica) and tufted grey langur (Semnopithecus priam) species had
the highest impact on crop damage. Cash crops and fruits were particularly
vulnerable to monkey damage. Although most damage occurred during the
fruiting season, monkeys damaged crops throughout the year. Local deterrent
methods were reported to be effective by 59.9% of the respondents.
However, these methods negatively impacted the education, health, and
economy of the respondents' children. According to my findings, the increase
in monkey population, people planting them in forest clearings, the proximity
of human villages to forests, and attacks on people by monkeys have
contributed to the human monkey conflict in Ampara district. People living
in villages with higher monkey populations and those whose farmlands were
far from their homes reported greater crop damage. This highlights the urgent
need to implement effective conservation measures to mitigate this conflict.
