It’s a ‘monkey business’ that many urban-dwellers often dread.
Attacks by simians have become a menace, including in the State capital over the years. The countryside too hasn’t been spared of their onslaught. Their frequent attacks on standing crops in search of food have been irksome.
The seriousness of the issue could be gauged from the fact that an expert committee had been constituted to study the situation in March this year comprising the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, representatives of the veterinary wing of the GHMC and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology CCMB.
The study revealed that loss of natural habitat was the prime reason for monkeys entering human habitations. Now, the government is evolving long-term plans to check the primate peril.
Fruit for thought
In a bid to restore the natural habitat of simians in the long term, the government has identified certain species of wild fruit-bearing trees which can go a long way in checking the monkeys’ urban migration. In all, 24 species, including Neredu (botanical name Syzyglumcumini), Seethapal (Annona Squamosal), Usiri (Emblica Officinalis), Medi (Ficuscrecemosa), Tuniki (Disopycos Melanoxylon), Seema Chinta (Pithecolobium Dulce), Mamidi (Mangestera indica) and Chinta (Tamarindus indica) had been identified for plantation.
A senior official supervising the Haritha Haram, the State government’s ambitious green cover improvement programme, said the government had decided to conduct a special drive for plantation of these wild fruit-bearing trees in the next phase of Haritha Haram expected to commence in the third week of July.
Huge menace
“We are looking at restoring their natural habitat so that the simians do not venture into urban areas in search of fruits. The trees once planted will reach a reasonable size in two to three years,” the official told The Hindu .
Saplings of the selected species are available in adequate numbers in nurseries across the State and the drive will focus on plantation and protection of these species in areas outside the urban centres and in close vicinity of forest lands.
The menace, according to officials, is very high in Adilabad, Nirmal, Mancherial and Kumram Bheem Asifabad districts while the population of monkeys in urban areas like Hyderabad too was on the rise causing inconvenience to people.
