An official said, that after the amendment, the forest department has written a letter to the UT administration to hand over the work to the MC
With the union ministry removing monkeys from the list of protected species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (as amended in 2022), the responsibility of catching monkeys in the city will be given to the municipal corporation (MC).
At present, the forest department has been tasked with catching monkeys in the city.
An official said, that after the amendment, the forest department has written a letter to the UT administration to hand over the work to the MC. A decision in this regard would be taken soon, he added.
Councillors have raised this problem in the MC House meeting.
Five months ago, the forest department sought help from the Wildlife Institute of India (WFI) to address the problem of monkeys. The forest department conducted the first census of monkeys in December last year. It was found that there were 1,326 monkeys in some parts of the city. As many as 594 monkeys were found in Panjab University alone.