In a bid to provide food for monkeys and protect crops from wildlife in routine conflict with humans, State Horticulture Department has decided to tackle the situation with mango seeds. For this Chief Minister Harish Rawat has categorically asked officials to find out the solution of the wildlife menace and also create job opportunities for villagers in their area.

Talking to The Pioneer, Horticulture additional secretary Teekam Singh Panwar said that the monkey menace is causing destruction of crops and orchards in the mountains because monkeys are not getting food in their natural surroundings.

For this state Horticulture department would start collecting mango seeds — easily available in municipal dustbins during the season — and dump these inside the forests. It is assumed that if thousands of seeds are thus dumped, at least 20 per cent will germinate during rainy season. later such trees will turn into a mango grove providing fruits for the monkeys too.

Besides this horticulture department is also conducting survey of orchards. It has been noticed that few orchards are situated on slopes at high altitude. Few are situated in appropriate locations but there is no availability of water and the land is uneven.

For this horticulture department would build tin-shed at the heights and will harvest rainwater by constructing RCC tanks. With this water would be clean, would not be dangerous for wild life and will not evaporate. If the water is available at the centre of the land, it will be lifted through solar water pump because it has been proven that this pump can be used to lift water upto 200 feet. Efforts will also be made to enable rain water harvesting in a convenient manner.

later the collected water will be used for irrigation through sprinklers. later, the department would use the tin-shed for gradation of fruits and will open its office or convert it into accommodation for its employees.

With this they would be able to cope up with the monkey menace and help check migration as well since damage to farming by wildlife is also forcing villagers to migrate.