Unsuccessful in dealing with the monkey menace in the areas under its jurisdiction despite having spent lakhs for the same, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has now decided to go for ‘power fencing’ or ‘simian tape’ to keep them away. “We have already spent lakhs on various methods to control the monkey menace, but nothing has worked. We have now decided to scare them away using low-voltage electric fencing,” said NDMC Health Officer PK Sharma.
The civic body has started work on installing the electric fencing, also called simian tape, around Government buildings and the residences of Ministers in lutyens’ Delhi. “As part of the power fencing project, boundary walls will be sealed with electric wires, which can deliver a low voltage electric shock. We have decided to do this in consultation with various experts, including animal rights activists,” said Sharma. “This method will not be harmful to the simians as the voltage on such fences is low. So, the moment the monkeys try to scale any wall, they will get a slight shock and will be scared away,” he said.
NDMC has been facing a tough time in keeping monkeys at bay in its areas. It had tried several methods to check the monkey menace — from hiring langur handlers and using air guns and rubber bullets to arranging for proper food for them at particular feeding areas. “After the Environment Ministry objected to deploying langurs, terming it a violation of animal rights, we hired a few people who would imitate the cries of langurs to scare them away. But that, too, failed in the long run,” Sharma said, adding they have “a team of 40 members working only to scare the monkeys away using different methods.”
NDMC had earlier also tried the power fencing method on a pilot project basis, but it had proved to be expensive and so was not taken further. “It is an expensive method. The fencing of a particular building costs over Rs5 lakh, but now we have little option left. So we have started with a few buildings,” he said. “We had earlier tried to shift them to the Asola Wildlife Sanctuary, but they could not be accommodated there after a time because of rising numbers,” Sharma added.
There are around 8,500 monkeys in NDMC areas. “We are also inviting suggestions from various quarters as to what can be done to deal with the monkey menace. If we find more feasible solutions, we will be more than willing to try them,” Sharma said. The NDMC area is home to the power elite of the city. While it has bungalows of Union Ministers and parliamentarians, many top industrialists also stay in the area. The Parliament House, all the Ministries, Supreme Court, Delhi High Court and residences of Supreme Court judges, senior bureaucrats and senior military officers fall within the NDMC area.