Revision as of 20:48, 26 August 2017

The monkey menace in urban areas

Delhi, 2017: the problem, and lack of solution

AlokKNMishra, Reward goes up, but few want to catch monkeys, August 26, 2017: The Times of India The fight of the corporations against the monkey menace in the city has become one of attrition.The number of monkey-catchers has declined sharply , and even promises of handsome rewards have failed to elicit much response.

Against Rs 800 for every monkey caught earlier, the north and south municipal corporations are now offering Rs 1,200. Yet “no agency expressed interest in the last three tenders we floated for catching monkeys“, said a north corporation official. “A group of people who came from Jaipur has also disappeared even though we paid Rs 1,200 for each monkey caught,“ he added.

The understaffed veterinary department supervises the catching and relocation of the simians for which nets are provided by the Delhi government.The corporations don't have any dedicated staff for this and that's why this problem has spiralled.

In east Delhi, 223 cases of monkey bite were reported in 2016; this year until June, the figure is 181. In north Delhi, there were 192 such cases in 2016; this year till April, the number was 46. And how bad is it in south Delhi?

Lajpat Nagar resident Anupam Trivedi said water supply to his house was disrupted a week ago when monkeys damaged the pipeline on the roof. “We had to protect the water pipeline with barbed wire.We approached south corporation but nobody listened to us,“ Trivedi said.His neighbours have done similar things. On July 17, two monkeys sneaked into the Civic Centre building and scared many corporation staff there.And even doctors at AIIMS had been forced to write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July for help.

In 2013, the government had made it illegal to hire langurs to drive away monkeys as it was a Schedule II animal. And the corporations lost an important weapon in their fight against this simian menace.

In February , SDMC informed the Delhi high court that it was unable to catch monkeys and that the Delhi government's wildlife department was the appropriate authority to do so.

“The number of people who were available for monkey catching is declining.Their next generation is not interested in the job. We have a really tough time catching monkeys,“ said Suresh Chand director, veterinary services, North Delhi Municipal Corporation.