The Forest Department has deployed its teams to raise the awareness and warn the people against feeding monkeys on the roadsides and near religious places in the Dehradun forest division. In addition to this the department has also deployed its staff to capture simians causing problems to public and release them in forest areas. These measures are being taken in order to mitigate the continuing human-simian conflict involving mostly rhesus macaques at a time when it is also being reported that authorities of neighbouring States are also releasing their captured monkeys in various parts of Uttarakhand compounding the situation.
It is pertinent to mention here that factors like decrease in their natural food in forests, illegal dumping of waste by local authorities and the practice of people with a notion of religious merit feeding monkeys continue to fuel the human-simian conflict in various parts of the State. The department expects to start the sterilisation of macaques at the centre established at Chidiyapur in Haridwar forest division from January next year. In the meantime, department teams have been deployed at two areas in Dehradun forest division to raise public awareness and deter the public from feeding the macaques. Talking to The Pioneer, the Dehradun divisional forest officer Prasanna Kumar Patro informed that the macaques and langurs are listed under Schedule II of the Wildlife Protection Act and feeding them is an offence akin to poaching. He said that the department has deployed its personnel on the stretch of road from Asharodi check post to the Dat Kali temple and from Indian Institute of Petroleum to lacchiwala. On Tuesdays and Saturdays-when people tend to feed the monkeys especially with a religious notion, the department personnel inform the public in the selected areas about the illegality of feeding monkeys, penal provisions for the offence and the undesirable effects of feeding the simians. He said, “Some challans were issued and some vehicles were also temporarily seized from persons feeding monkeys. However, in the initial stage we are focusing more on raising public awareness and warning the people against feeding monkeys. In addition to this, teams of trained department personnel are also capturing monkeys from near human settlements and releasing them in forest areas,” he said.
Apart from illegal activities like feeding monkeys and dumping garbage in proscribed manner, the human-simian conflict in Uttarakhand is also being exacerbated because monkeys captured by the authorities concerned in Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh are being released in Uttarakhand.