The locals of Khamalo panchayat on Saturday staged a road blockade near Khamalo Chowk on Cuttack-Chandabali road protesting against the step-motherly attitude of the district administration in providing relief from the terror of rogue monkeys and also demanding before the district Collector to take steps for driving away the simians from the locality.
Derabish police station IIC Umakant Nayak rushed to the road blockade spot and assured the agitated locals of help. later, the locals withdrew their agitation.
On being informed, a forest team from Kendrapada Forest Range office led by Ranger Adhira Kumar Behera rushed to the villagers where simians have unleashed a reign of terror and started a drive to nab the monkeys.
The simians had been on a biting spree and thereby had injured as many as 10 persons, including a minor girl. Villagers of Khamalo, Fogala and Janhimula are the worst victims, said former Sarpanch of Khamalo panchayat Deepak Kumar Sethy.
Some of the injured were identified as Karina Malla (a 6th class student), Susanta Kumar Mallik, Mahendra Kumar Nayak, Pravat Kumar Behera, Suryanarayan Tripathy and others.
The inhabitants now fear to come out of their houses due to the monkeys. Even schools have been affected in last three days as guardians are not sending their wards. Classes have been suspended regularly at a Government run primary school in the locality. Similarly, the local Anganwadi center has also been closed. “Though we the villagers earlier communicated to the forest department over telephone but they did not pay any heed As a result, the simians terror is increasing day by day,” alleged locals.
On last Thursday, some villagers visited to the district Collector office and demanded before the administration to take step to drive out the monkeys. When contacted, district Collector Muralidhar Mallik stated that the district administration has directed the forest personnel to capture the monkeys.
Ranger Adhira Kumar Behera stated that the forest personnel have started an operation since Saturday morning. “We are giving some drug-laced banana to the monkeys for nabbing them,” he stated.