If you find the forest patrolling guards taking selfies don't be surprised. They have been told to take pictures of every half kilometer and send them to the concerned DFO as part of proof that they have been doing the patrolling. The instruction was passed by the state forest minister Dinesh Aggrawal while convening a meeting with the forest officials in Dehradun on Saturday to make Uttarkahand free from monkey menace.
During meeting he categorically asked to make Uttarakhand free from monkey menace by November-December 2016. For this you catch the monkey and release in bordering states. IN hills people are deserting their farm due to monkey menace and leaving for better pasture. Ultimately it is promoting migration so you either put the monkey under the fencing or leave in neighbouring State.
During meeting official ddisclosed that they don’t have money on this head so they could not run drive to catch monkey from affected areas. Although they have put the file before the state government but they are yet to receive approval from them. Thereafter Aggrawal spoke to chief secretary shatrughan singh and asked him to release the fund on this head. Then CS assured that he would make sure release of fund by September 5.Aggrawal asked them to renovate the old guest house of forest department and made them available for online booking. For this you develop separate website. He also asked them to increase the patrolling gin forest areas and they should have GPS system so that we can have tab on their movement. You also asked the patrolling to team to send a picture to concerned DFO after every half kilometer patrolling. It was apprised that wild boar and elephants are destroying standing crops so there is need to construct safety wall. The meeting was attended by Addl Secy forest Meenakshi Joshi, PCF (wildlife) DBS Khati, Addl PCF Garhwal Gambhir Singh and DFO Dehradun Sambit Patro and others.