Dealing with monkey menace has become a “backbreaking task” for the UT Forest and Wildlife Department.
Seeking the assistance of monkey catchers for this job, the UT Forest and Wildlife Department has once again failed to get a positive response.
The Department had floated tenders for the third time seeking lowest bids from the monkey catchers in the city to catch monkeys. However, the Department has failed to elicit the positive response from the monkey catchers.
With no takers for monkey catching business since past six months in the city, the Forest and Wildlife Department now finds itself in a tight spot.
“Three times unlucky”, the Department is likely to take the plunge again to find monkey catchers in the city.
Notably, the UT Forest and Wildlife Department had hired trained monkey catcher last year to accomplish the task. And, the Department had managed to catch as many as 105 monkeys in six months with the assistance of a professional monkey catcher.
For each catch, the Department had paid Rs 500 to the monkey catcher. The professional monkey catcher had also assisted the UT Forest and Wildlife Department in releasing the captured monkeys in the forest area of Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary here.
When contacted, Santosh Kumar, UT Conservator of Forests and Chief wildlife warden said, “The Department would float tenders again to hire monkey catcher. We did not get positive response from the monkey catchers even after floating the tenders for the third time.”
He said, “There are only few takers for monkey catching business here as Chandigarh is a small city. Hence, we are finding it difficult to hire monkey catchers again.”
“Earlier, the Department had managed to catch nearly 105 monkeys in six months with the assistance of trained monkey catchers,” he added.
Containing the monkey menace in the city has always remained an uphill task for the UT Department. While the Department was flooded with over 700 complaints of monkey rampage in last two years, the attempts of the Department to catch rogue monkeys have failed to bear fruits in the recent past.
Given the large number of complaints in the past, the Forest and Wildlife Department has been regularly issuing public notices about “Do’s and Dont’s” for the city denizens to deal with monkeys.
According to the estimates of UT Forest and Wildlife officials, over 400 monkeys roam freely around the city. The monkey menace is prevalent in northern sectors including 8, 9, 10, 11, 18, 26, 27, 28 etc in Chandigarh. Also, the monkey nuisance in these areas is restricting the residents to stay indoor in morning and late evening hours.
On a sticky wicket to control the monkey menace here, the UT Forest and Wildlife Department cannot use langurs to scare away simians after the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) ban on the use of grey langurs for the purpose. Earlier, the UT Forest and Wildlife Department had two ‘langurs’ to chase away the monkeys and was paying around Rs7500 each per month to the trainers of both the ‘langurs’.