After formulating a broad-strategy to control simians menace in Chandigarh, the UT Forest and Wildlife department has put on hold its implementation and the polls is going to add more delay in the process.
Though the UT department is all geared up to deal with monkey menace after its last year’s survey, the enforcement of model code of conduct has come in the way of floating tenders for hiring professional monkey catchers in Chandigarh.
After conducting monkeys’ survey in Chandigarh, the UT department had planned to capture monkeys with the help of its own staff in first few months and then, hire professional monkey catchers and assist them in the process.
But, with the enforcement of model code of conduct in the Union Territory of Chandigarh, the UT department cannot float tenders for the said purpose and allot work in this regard, as per the rules.
The months long survey conducted by the department had identified 12 groups of monkeys in Chandigarh. According to the survey, each group has 35-40 numbers of monkeys taking their total population to about 500 in the city.
After the survey, the UT Forest and Wildlife department has prepared a map identifying areas where monkey menace is prevalent in the city. The information including population in each monkey group, their movement at various locations and at different time slots among other details has been collected during the survey by department’s staff.
While talking to The Pioneer, Santosh Kumar, UT chief wildlife warden said, “As model code of conduct is enforced here till the polls are over, we can not float tenders to hire monkey catchers for next few weeks. Earlier, the department had planned to float tenders in February.”
He said, “With the help of its survey findings, the department has prepared maps and identified locations where the monkey menace is prevalent in Chandigarh. Such locations will be helpful to monkey catchers in setting up traps and capture monkeys in the city.”
“In the meantime, the department’s staff is trying to chase away or capture monkeys after receiving complaints on its helpline by the city residents regarding monkey rampage,” he added.
Santosh said, “As per the department’s survey, the monkey menace is prevalent in Sector 7, 9, 11, 26, 28, Punjab University Sector 14, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Sector 12. The identified groups of monkeys are often seen in these sectors at different times.”
The forests areas like Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary, Sukhna Forest Reserve are adjoining the city, thereby bringing monkeys closer to human habitations. Every month about 50-60 complaints of monkey rampage from various areas of Chandigarh are registered with the UT Forest and Wildlife department.
Notably, the department had failed to elicit desired response from monkey catchers for three times last year. The UT Forest and Wildlife department had hired trained monkey catcher in 2012 and had managed to catch as many as 105 monkeys in six months. For each catch, the department had paid `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.