The man-animal conflict involving simians and wild boars is increasing in different parts of the State but the Forest Department is yet to initiate concrete steps for resolving this problem.
People in many areas especially, suburban and rural areas have been forced to alter their lifestyle and suffer loss in farming due to monkeys and wild boars raiding farms and even gardens.
The forest department has planned to sterilise monkeys and release them in the jungles with a committee headed by the additional principal chief conservator of forests (Environment) making various suggestions to the PCCF for tackling this conflict.
Using herbs to sterilise monkeys and planting turmeric around farms to repel wild boars are some of the suggestions made by this committee which will also take suggestions from animal rights activists.There are an estimated four lakh monkeys and a lesser number of wild boars in Uttarakhand.
These two animals straying into human settlements have become a common feature in various parts of Uttarakhand. The department plans to sterilise the monkeys but this plan has been facing opposition from wildlife activists who State that this technique has failed to yield desired results and has instead turned the monkeys more aggressive in places where simian sterilisation was attempted in India.
However, according to APCCF (Environment) Jairaj, who heads the committee formed to find a solution to the monkey menace in the State, the monkeys will have to be sterilised to control their growing population in Uttarakhand.
“Monkey sterilisation is being undertaken successfully in Himachal Pradesh and some of our officials have visited the neighbouring State to study this.
As long term measures, we have also recommended fruit plantations and surveillance to prevent humans feeding monkeys and improper dumping of garbage which are exacerbating the monkey menace. We have also recommended training our personnel in catching monkeys because the professional monkey catchers charge a hefty sum.
“Though there are orders for killing monkeys deemed dangerous to human life and property, I am against killing monkeys. We are also considering options like bio-sterilisation of monkeys as some people have told us that some herbs can achieve this. We can experiment this first on mice and rabbits before trying it on monkeys.
“As far as wild boars are concerned, we have recommended that a cheap cloth be used to fence the farm as the boars see this as a physical barrier. We are also suggesting that farmers plant two-three rows of turmeric around their farms as turmeric repels the boars and is also a commercially viable crop,” said Jairaj.