‘Total chaos’: Monkey blamed for nationwide power cut in Sri Lanka
GuardianFEB 20
The power outage highlights critical infrastructure vulnerabilities in Sri Lanka's electrical grid system, demonstrating how a single point of failure can cascade into a nationwide crisis affecting millions of citizens and essential services. The current government must upgrade the power grid, or Sri Lanka will face frequent blackouts.
The incident may be symptomatic of broader wildlife management challenges. Sri Lanka faces growing conflicts between expanding human settlements and a booming monkey population. With the endemic toque macaque population increasingly turning to scavenging food from human habitats, the monkeys are raising the risks of further damage to infrastructure.