Sunday February 10th towards the hours 11:30 local blackouts have occurred throughout the Sri Lanka And the cause seems to be attributed to … one monkey. According to the authorities, it seems that a macaco from the cap has climbed one on one Panadura power planta suburb south of the city of Columbus. According to various witnesses, there would have been one strong explosion accompanied by a “fire ball“which would have caused a national failure, with about 22 million people who remained without electricity Or at least forced to use personal current generators. Fortunately, the current was restored In many areas within a few hours, while some more peripheral areas have had to wait until the following day.
The hypothesis of the monkey as primary cause of the failure would also have been confirmed by the Minister of Energy Kumara Jayakredywho said: “A monkey came into contact with the network transformer, causing an imbalance in the power system.” How is it possible that a single animal caused such great damage? At the moment there are no certain answers, given that the Ceylon Electricity Board – who published a message of excuses on its social channels – did not provide detailed explanations of the incident. These, however, the words of an employee who preferred to remain anonymous:
Past governments have not acted or updated the systems (…) in fact, the national electricity grid is so weakened that frequent current interruptions can be provided throughout the island if a disturbance occurs even in one of our lines.
It is an event that has done a lot inside the country discuss: On the one hand many users on the web have emphasized the tragicomic side of the matter, while others have raised serious concerns about national energy infrastructure and its fragility. In fact, the Asian country is not new to accidents of this type and in recent years the blackouts have become increasingly recurrent. Sri Lanka in fact uses so much hydroelectric energy, but the fossil fuels: their scarcity in 2022 even pushed the government to ration electricity a 13 hours a day.
To the problem of the scarcity of energy is added another, that is, that of the rapid increase in the number of monkeys. With the increase of deforestation these animals always have less space Where to live, going more and more to the large inhabited centers in search of food. It is currently estimated that on the island they are present between 2 and 3 million macaques and that their number is increasing.
