Sri Lanka, suffering from severe financial problems, has decided to sell 1 lakh monkeys to China.
According to international media reports, Sri Lanka, which is suffering from severe financial difficulties, will now sell 100,000 ‘tuk macaque’ monkeys to China. But animal protection organizations have expressed their concerns over this decision.
This decision officially announced by the Sri Lankan Minister of Agriculture, Mahendra Amaraweera. He states that these animals are common in Sri Lanka. But according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, this species of monkey threatened in the rest of the world.
He states that these monkeys will sold to 1000 zoos in China. Sri Lanka sell 1 lakh monkeys to China, a committee has formed in this regards.
Sri Lanka’s position on this matter is that the increasing population of monkeys is not only damaging crops but also attacking humans.
It is for this reason that the Sri Lankan government has delisted several animals including 3 species of monkeys, peacocks and wild pigs.
On the other hand, animal protection organizations in Sri Lanka have criticized the government’s decision, saying that there has been no survey of monkeys for the past 40 years and no one even knows the actual number of these monkeys, first of all. It is important to determine their number.
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Animal protection organizations fear that after buying these monkeys from Sri Lanka, they may be used for meat, medical research and other purposes which is not true.