With the authorities failing to take effective action, aggressive simians continue to pose a problem for the public in the lake city of Nainital.
Located amidst dense forests, Nainital has a considerable population of langurs and macaques. The illegal practice of feeding monkeys and improper dumping of garbage has brought the simians closer to human habitats.
Monkeys can be seen in various localities of Nainital on the roads and residential localities where they have made it difficult for the public to move conveniently especially the women and children.
Locals complain that so far monkeys had bitten dozens of school children. The simian issue had achieved such serious proportions that it after a youngster accidentally died after a fall from the terrace due to a monkey four years ago, the issue had also reached the High Court.
However, the local authorities merely fulfilled formalities, hiring teams from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh to catch monkeys and release them elsewhere for about three years. This has evidently not helped resolve the problem.
The simians in town are now causing problems not only for the locals but also for the visiting tourists.
Observers point out that the Forest Department has favoured impractical measures like sterilisation of monkeys which has proved to be a failure in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh.
Instead of such measures which actually cause monkey troops to become more aggressive towards humans, the authorities need to take measures like growing fruit trees in the forests, preventing people from feeding them and stopping improper disposal of garbage in public places.