An incident in Sri Lanka, where a monkey entered a transformer, plunged the 22 million island nation into darkness.

A strange event in the South Asian country of Sri Lanka led to a major power outage affecting the entire country. According to government officials, an unauthorized entry by a monkey into the electricity grid station on Sunday resulted in a widespread power outage across the island. The outage began around 11:30 local time and electricity could not be fully restored in the following three hours. With a population of 22 million, hospitals, businesses, and homes in the island country are trying to meet their energy needs using generators or inverters.

PREVIOUS OCCURRENCES

During the major economic crisis in 2022, Sri Lanka also experienced prolonged power outages. Fuel had run out at petrol stations, and thermal power plants had to implement interruptions of up to 13 hours a day.

COEXISTENCE WITH MONKEYS

Sri Lanka is home to various monkey species such as the Toque Macaque, Purple-Faced Langur, and Grey Langur. These monkeys can be seen roaming on electricity lines in cities like Kandy and Colombo, or entering buildings in search of food. Authorities mentioned plans to take measures to make the electricity infrastructure more secure following this incident. An investigation into the incident is ongoing.