People in Pauri town have been facing various problems due to monkey menace for about two years now. The authorities have failed to take effective measures to resolve this problem.
As per government guidelines, the urban local body is meant to handle situations like monkey menace in areas under its jurisdiction while the Forest Department is meant to handle the simian problem in rural areas. However, despite repeated complaints by the residents of Pauri town, the Pauri municipality has remained apathetic to this problem. The people living in this town face severe inconvenience due to the macaques and at least three persons have been injured so far due to the monkeys.
The residents of town recently met the Garhwal divisional forest officer Raj Mani Pandey to complain about the monkey menace. They complained that apart from posing direct problems to humans, the simians are also either eating or destroying the fruits and vegetables planted by the residents. Pandey said that so far he had sent the public complaints thrice to the municipality executive officer- twice in the last year and once this year, to facilitate capture and relocation of the monkeys. The DFO stressed that the municipality council has to bear the expenses incurred on capturing the monkeys and also send the name of the person hired for capturing the monkey, while adding that the department will also help the municipality in this regard. While the DFO also showed copies of the letters and Government order sent to the municipality, the municipality executive officer denied having received these.
According the State Government order, the municipality will nominate a nodal officer for redressing monkey-human conflict and form a rescue team also comprising experts to tackle the problem in the area under its purview. The cages and other materials required for capturing the simians are to be provided by the municipality but the locals complaint that the authority has done nothing to tackle the monkey menace so far.
Apart from the urban area, those living in the rural areas are also facing major problems because of the simians which destroy crops, eat up fruits and vegetables apart from raiding homes for food and occasionally attacking humans. There have been some cases wherein the forest department has captured monkeys following complaints by the villagers but by and large the problem remains unresolved in both the urban and rural areas. Factors like depletion of fruits in the jungles, expanding human settlements and improper garbage disposal have exacerbated the monkey menace.