The district administration has evolved a detailed plan for putting an end to monkey menace across the district.
A special meeting was held under Collector C.Manoharan on Friday to put in place strategies to catch the simians and restore them to their natural habitat.
Survey
The district administration had handed over 37 specially-designed cages, built with its own funds, to the forest department for trapping the monkeys. This has helped in trapping a large number of monkeys from residential localities in the last few weeks.
The authorities launched a survey and identified the areas frequented by monkeys.
They intrude into the residential localities mainly in search of drinking water due to the drought conditions prevailing in the forests, officials said.
Special teams have been formed to monitor their movement and implement the plan.
The trapped monkeys will be let off into reserve forests. A suitable site for setting up a shelter for monkeys with all necessary facilities to stop their intrusion into farms and residential localities would be identified, and a recommendation would soon be forwarded to the government through forest department, according to sources.
Farmers and public would be kept informed on the steps taken by the administration, Mr.Manoharan said.
Thangaraj, District Forest Officer, Santhoshkumar, Project Director, District Rural Development Agency, and Rajaraman and Durai, Revenue Divisional Officers, participated.
