The sterilisation of Monkeys being carried out by the state is not proving that effective in tackling the problem of human-monkey conflict in Uttarakhand. The State Forest and Wildlife minister Harak Singh Rawat said this while responding to a group of citizens who met him to complain about monkey menace in their locality.

The citizens complained to the minister about problems being caused by monkeys in their locality.

They demanded that a cage be placed to trap and remove the monkeys from the area. Responding to them, the minister said that even though a cage would provide only temporary relief, he would direct the officials to place it. He further said that the forest department had also undertaken the sterilisation of monkeys to tackle the human-simian conflict but so far this had achieved little success in tackling the problem.

It is pertinent to mention here that sterilisation of monkeys had already been tried without success in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh in the past.

Animal activists have been stating for quite some time now that sterilisation of monkeys would actually exacerbate the problem of human-monkey conflict. Along with activists, experts have also been stressing on measures like growing of fruit trees and proper garbage disposal to redress the monkey menace. In 2012, the then director general of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) VK Bahuguna had written to the principal chief conservators of forests of all the states, suggesting work on spreading the seeds of fruit trees on forest floors near villages and suburban areas. Apart from the practice of people feeding monkeys on roadsides and villages, it was felt that the major factor responsible for the rising human-monkey conflict is the gradual elimination and reduction of Fruit Bearing Trees in the adjoining forests. It had been observed that if fruit bearing trees are available near the villages and suburban areas, the monkey menace is considerably less in such areas, he had stated in his letter to the PCCFs.

Thursday, 17 January 2019 | PNS | Dehradun

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