Govt ‘firm on’ checking monkey menace

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 17

The state government is committed to getting the state free from monkey menace and is making every possible effort in this direction. Eight sterilization centres have been established in the state and more than one lakh monkeys have been sterilized so far. A spokesperson of the state government said here today, one more sterilization centre would be opened at Kaniya Nala (Sanj) in Shimla district.

The state government has worked out a new scheme of establishing Van Vatikas to rehabilitate the sterilized monkeys. Under the scheme, initially the Van Vatikas would be set up at Chintpurni and Poanta Sahib. After the success of these the government would consider setting more such vatikas at suitable places.

He said due to the efforts of the state government a decrease of 18,500 of the monkey population has seen in the past two years. It was disclosed recently in a report presented to the Forest Minister by Mysore University.

According to the report, in the year 2013 the population of monkeys was reported at 2,26,086 through Head Count Method and the population was reduced to 2,07,614 in the year 2015. In past one decade big decrease in the population of the monkeys has been observed in the State. In 2004 the population of the monkeys was 3,17,512.

The report says sterilization has resulted in the decrease of the population of the monkeys. The trend would continue in the future as well. As per report, 27,276 km of land was suitable for monkeys living in the state. In most of the forest circles a decrease in the monkey population has been observed but in Nurpur, Renukaji, Bilaspur, Rohru, Dharamsala, Pangi and Dalhousi an increase in the monkey population has been noticed. These circles are either situated in the north western or south eastern borders of the state. The report also disclosed that the 348 beats have been spotted as hot spots out of which 83 are in forest areas.

The population survey of the monkeys has been done through Trail Survey using transact method and the Geographical Information System. The survey was done in the entire state covering 2,631 roads of 12,782 km from June to July 2015 and environment and height etc. As many as 22 standards have also been studied. The population survey of monkeys was done on the basis of these standards and scientific assessments. Himachal Pradesh has become the first state to adopt these standards of survey in the country, he added.

The state has also observed decrease in the monkey attacks on people. The compensation amount provided on death of a person after any animal attack has been increased from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh, in the case of serious injury the amount has been increased from Rs 33,000 to Rs 75,000 and for minor injury from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000. The government has provided compensation amount of approximately Rs 1 crore to 2,200 people so far.

The government has initiated “Mukhya Mantri Khet Sanrakshan Yojna” with an outlay of Rs 25 crore to protect the crop of the farmers from the stray and wild animals from this fiscal. He said that under this scheme the government would provide 60 per cent financial assistance to the farmers for fencing their fields.