Agitated over a leopard killing a dog near his house, Himachal Pradesh Kisan Sabha president Dr. Kuldip Tanwar, on Wednesday said human beings ought to be included in the ‘The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960’, seeing how various animal-loving NGOs and lobbies raise their voice against animal cruelty by moving Courts, but are not concerned about troubles faced by humans.
In recent days, leopards have killed three people and injured many in the State, forcing the Vidhan Sabha to take up the issue.
The Shimla Municipal Corporation had earlier rounded up every stray dog and kept them in dog houses built outside the town. But an NGO got them released and now leopards, many of which are man-eaters, are entering localities and houses in search of these dogs, which are easy prey.
This is not the end of the troubles confronting the residents of Shimla. Foraging for food in garbage scattered across the town, troops of monkeys have moved down from hill tops and jungles, and have made life difficult for the people of Shimla. The State alone has a population of more than 4 lakh monkeys after the government stopped their export for bio-medical researches. For a long time, the Kisan Sabha has been demanding the export and scientific culling of monkeys, but no government accepted this demand.
More than 60 per cent of agricultural land in the State is lying barren because of monkey menace, the Kisan Sabha claims, demanding that monkeys be declared as vermin for the time being.
