Officials to rid Taj Mahal of monkeys, stray dogs ahead of G-20 Summit in Agra

City civic commissioner Amit Gupta, district magistrate (DM) Navneet Singh Chahal and city police commissioner Dr Preetinder Singh reached the Taj Mahal on Tuesday to assess the preparations for the VVIP visits scheduled next month

Amid preparations for delegates from G-20 nations who would be visiting Agra in Uttar Pradesh as part of the international summit, top district officials want to make sure that there is no recurrence of the incidents that took place last September when two women from Spain were bitten by monkeys at the Taj Mahal.

Agra Nagar Nigam have started catching stray dogs and monkeys in areas near the Taj Mahal and Dusshera Ghat (Representative Photo)

UP is set to host about a dozen G-20-related events from February to August 2023, with the first one beginning in Agra and the last taking place in Varanasi.

City civic commissioner Amit Gupta, district magistrate (DM) Navneet Singh Chahal and city police commissioner Dr Preetinder Singh reached the Taj Mahal on Tuesday to assess the preparations for the VVIP visits scheduled next month.

“The officials, who visited the Taj Mahal, issued instructions to get the monkeys and dogs caught as part of the preparations for the upcoming visits of delegates from G-20 nations next month,” a press statement issued by the Information Office at Agra said.

In compliance with the instructions, Agra Nagar Nigam began catching stray dogs and monkeys in areas near the Taj Mahal and Dusshera Ghat.

“We have been catching strays from across the city but as the G-20 delegates are expected to visit Agra next month, our focus now is on the 500-metre area around the Taj Mahal. Stray dogs have been removed from the monument’s premises,” said Nagar Nigam commissioner Nikhil Tikaram Funde on Friday.

“We sought permission from the forest department to catch 10,000 monkeys but got approval to catch 500. We have laid traps in and around the Taj Mahal. The monkeys will be sterilised after their capture. We are working in partnership with Wildlife SOS NGO,” added the municipal chief.

A right to information (RTI) activist and lawyer from Agra, Kishan Chand Jain filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Allahabad high court last year seeking the court’s intervention on the measures to be taken to check the ‘monkey menace’ since the civic authorities “failed” to do so.

In 2019, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) was entrusted with the task of securing the Taj Mahal. Its personnel were provided with slingshots to keep the monkeys at bay, however, as the move did not go well with animal lovers, it was shelved.