Sri Lanka counts nuisance wildlife in bid to protect crops

Some 40,000 local officials were deployed to count wild boar, lorises, peacocks, and monkeys near farms and homes during a five-minute period on Saturday morning. In the north-central district of Anuradhapura, farmer families gathered in open fields to count the animals and record them in sheets provided by the agriculture ministry. "We are having census during a very short time period to ensure there is no double counting," ministry official Ajith Pushpakumara told reporters in the capital Colombo.