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This fiscal, HP govt spent ₹85L to curb monkey menace
A sum of ₹25.95 lakh was spent for habitat enrichment on 20 hectare, ₹34.28 lakh on capturing monkeys, ₹11.79 lakh on sterilisation medicines and ₹13.03 lakh on awareness activities
The Himachal Pradesh government has spent ₹85.06 lakh on measures taken to control monkey menace in the state during the current financial year, said state forest minister Govind Singh Thakur in a written reply in the House on Thursday.
A sum of ₹25.95 lakh was spent for habitat enrichment on 20 hectare, ₹34.28 lakh on capturing monkeys, ₹11.79 lakh on sterilisation medicines and ₹13.03 lakh on awareness activities.
“The state government also got monkeys declared as ‘vermin’ in 91 most affected tehsils and sub-tehsils and the Shimla municipal corporation (MC) area. Notifications for the same were issued on February 14 and July 11, last year,” Thakur said in response to a question raised by Communist Party of India (Marxist) legislator Rakesh Singha.
For designing an effective strategy for mitigating damage by monkeys, the forest minister said, “Simian population estimation were carried out in Himachal by specialists from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, and the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Coimbatore, in December 2019, reports of which is awaited.”
Thakur said that Habitat Enrichment Plantation Scheme is being implemented across state under which fruit trees were being planted in ten worst affected forest divisions for providing natural food resources to monkeys and other wild animals in order to keep them away from agriculture fields.
“Shimla MC has been requested to adopt effective waste management measures, as garbage thrown in the open increases commensalism (increased dependence of monkeys on human food).
Public awareness and educative programmes using mass media have been adopted to educate people to desist from feeding monkeys. Awareness workshops on human-monkey conflict were also conducted in Shimla, Dharamshala and other urban local bodies.
“No objection certificate for gun license within 10km radius of the protected areas are being issued to farmers by the chief wildlife warden for protecting their crops from primates,” the minister said.
The government had also taken up the issue with the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change in June, last year response of which is awaited, he added.
Nine animals declared crop damaging species
Besides, the state government has declared nine animals, including Rhesus monkey, wild boar, blue bull, porcupine, jackal, chital, sambar, hare and parrot, as crop damaging species. These species are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
The HP government has delegated the powers to chief wildlife warden and all wildlife wardens to issue permit to hunt such animals.
Quote: No objection certificate for gun license within 10km radius of the protected areas are being issued to farmers by the chief wildlife warden for protecting their crops from primates: Govind Singh Thakur, HP forest minister
