At its wits’ end, the UT Forest and Wildlife department has come up with another plan to keep monkeys in the city at bay.
With the menace of monkeys in City Beautiful becoming a matter of serious concern, the UT Forest and Wildlife department has chalked out a plan to keep monkeys confined to the forest areas. For this, the department has decided to set up four plots of fruit-bearing trees in the forest areas here.
After hiring professional monkey catchers in the city last year, the department is now keen to resolve the human-animal conflict once and for all. As per the proposed plan, the UT Forest department has identified four plots in the city's forest areas where fruit-bearing trees would be planted to naturally hold back monkeys in the forests.
Four plots of one hectare each of fruit-bearing trees would be developed in the forest areas like Nepli, Kansal among others. The forest areas here are adjacent to human habitations and the monkeys come to the city in search of food.
According to estimates of UT Forest and Wildlife officials, around 400 monkeys roam freely in the city. The monkey menace is prevalent in northern sectors, including 8, 9, 10, 11, 18, 26, 27, 28 among others in Chandigarh. Also, the monkey menace in these areas is restricting the residents to stay indoors in the morning and late evening hours.
Santosh Kumar, UT Conservator of Forests-cum-Chief Wildlife Warden, while talking to The Pioneer, said "the UT Forest and Wildlife department has planned to develop four plots of fruit-bearing trees in the forest areas here to keep the monkeys confined to the forest areas."
He said "the work to develop these plots of one hectare each would be initiated by next month. At present, the department has identified two places, one each in Nepli and Kansal forest to develop these plots. Two more places would be finalised soon."
"The monkeys in the forest areas come to the city in search of food and if the proposed plantation is done, the monkeys would stop coming here," he added.
After failing miserably to deal with the monkey menace in the city, the UT Forest and Wildlife department had roped in trained monkey catchers last year to accomplish the task. And, the department has managed to catch as many as 105 monkeys in the last six months with the assistance of professional monkey catchers.
The department pays Rs 600 to the local monkey catchers for each monkey they catch in the city. Also, the professional monkey catchers assist the UT Forest and Wildlife department in releasing the captured monkeys in the forest area of Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary here.
Containing the monkey menace in Chandigarh has always remained a tough task for the UT department. While the department was flooded with over 700 complaints of monkey rampage in the last two years, the attempts by the department to catch rogue monkeys here turned out badly in the past.
Given the large number of complaints in the last two years, the Forest and Wildlife department had also issued 'Dos and Don'ts' for the city denizens to deal with monkeys.
The department's staff caught 70 monkeys in 2011 and could capture only a few monkeys in 2012 before the hiring of professional monkey catchers. Failing in the first attempt to elicit response from monkey catchers in June 2012, the department had floated tenders for the second time in July 2012 to hire professional monkey catchers here.