Monkeys being drugged with sedatives in bananas to catch them, allege Gurgaon activists
A city-based animal rights organisation on Tuesday filed a police complaint against an organisation hired by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) in Sushant Lok area for allegedly drugging monkeys to capture them.
A city-based animal rights organisation on Tuesday filed a police complaint against an organisation hired by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) in Sushant Lok area for allegedly drugging monkeys to capture them.
The simians are allegedly being drugged with sedative-laced bananas.
The organisation was hired to tackle monkey menace in the area under the MCG’s project to relocate the simians to Aravalis.
Gurmeet J Singh, honorary animal welfare officer with the Animal Welfare Board of India, in his complaint alleged that the organisation is not registered under AWBI, which is a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF). Registration of such organisations is mandatory.
Another activist Amit Chaudhery, president, People For Animals, Gurgaon, said,“We have evidence that monkeys are being drugged with the help of fruits. Bananas inserted with intoxicated drugs are given to monkeys to make them unconscious. Then, they are transported to unknown areas.”
He alleged that the animals are carried in a vehicle in cruel manner without food and water during the process of relocation. The entire process of capturing and relocating was ‘illegal’, the activist said.
MCG officials said they had been informed about the incident and they would look into it.
Sudhir Kumar, sanitation inspector of MCG, said, “We will investigate the allegations and will take immediate steps. Also, as the number of monkey bites has been increasing over the years and we also have to provide protection to residents.”
Last year in December, a 27-year-old man died after falling from the terrace of his house at Nathupur village in DLF Phase-3 while escaping a monkey attack.
Out of 7372 cases of rabies reported at the city’s Civil hospital in 2015, 387 were of monkey bites. On an average the hospital receives 32-35 cases of monkey bites a month, which means nearly one incident of man-animal conflict a day.