Successive State Governments claimed to have planned and undertaken efforts to redress the human-simian conflict in Uttarakhand. In the past few years, crores of rupees have been spent by the forest department in pursuance of its monkey sterilisation programme but so far this appears to have had little impact on the human-monkey conflict.
Wildlife experts and activists pointed out that the plantation of fruit trees and prevention of improper garbage disposal should be ensured first to tackle the root cause of the problem before expending resources on monkey sterilisation programme which is yet to be scientifically proven as an effective method for mitigating monkey menace.
Rhesus macaques and langurs have for long been part of the ecology in the wildlife-rich Uttarakhand State. The seeds of human-monkey conflict were planted years before Uttarakhand achieved statehood. However, since creation of the state, habitat fragmentation, apparent decrease in fruit bearing trees in forest and nearby areas, unplanned urbanisation, encroachment in forest areas and continued illegal dumping of garbage in the open have exacerbated the conflict situation.
In July 2012, the then director general of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), VK Bahuguna had written to the principal chief conservators of forest (PCCF) of all Indian states suggesting that seeds of fruit trees be spread on forest floors near villages and suburban areas to mitigate the conflict. After analysing the situation, apart from the practice of people feeding monkeys on roadsides and villages, the major factor responsible for the rising human-simian conflict is the gradual elimination and reduction of fruit bearing trees in the adjoining forests. It had also been observed that monkey-menace is considerably less where fruit bearing trees are available near the villages and suburban areas, Bahuguna had stated.
Spreading the seeds of fruit trees on the forest floor near areas affected by monkey menace, will ultimately enrich the forest biodiversity by bringing up these trees which will help provide food for the wildlife. This can be undertaken with a bare minimum expenditure, he had further stressed.
About five years later, the recommended plantation of fruit trees does not appear to have been undertaken seriously in Uttarakhand.
Experts point out that instead of maximising plantation of the required flora, the authorities have emphatically continued to favour the sterilisation of monkeys which is more expensive and not scientifically proven to have achieved the desired aim. Animal Welfare Board of India co-opted member and PFA Uttarakhand member secretary Gauri Maulekhi points out that in the past, crores were spent on monkey sterilisation in Himachal Pradesh which ended up making them more aggressive while increasing their population.
“In the past, monkey sterilisation was proposed to be undertaken in Uttarakhand with Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) fund to which the Inspector General, Forests, Ministry of Environment and Forests had expressed his objection stating that this method had failed in Himachal Pradesh.
Monkey sterilisation in Himachal Pradesh had resulted in many monkey deaths, skewed the sex ratio and disturbed monkey-troop discipline making the simians more aggressive consequently exacerbating the human-monkey conflict there,” she said.