US centre roped in to check monkey menace

“The monkey menace is there is every state,but the situation is particularly bad in northern India — Delhi, Uttarakhand,Uttar Pradesh,Himachal Pradesh — as well as Assam in the Northeast,” said B S Bonal,member secretary,Central Zoo Authority.

Earlier,langurs were deployed to keep a check on the monkeys. But that did not prove too effective. Besides,the Environment Ministry recently issued a circular forbidding the use of langurs for this purpose. Langurs are now listed as a species protected under the Wildlife Protection Act,1972.

“Employing the services of langur-keepers and so on are temporary solutions. The underlying problem is of population — the Indian monkey is a prolific breeder and has spilled over to human settlements where food comes easy and shelter is available. Moreover,what was originally their habitat has also been encroached upon by humans,” pointed out Bonal.

The CNPRC has been asked to find an India-specific solution so that a customised conflict mitigation policy which will allow peaceful co-existence of monkeys and humans can be created. The CNPRC has conducted extensive research on primate behaviour,with special focus on the Rhesus Macaque.

“We feel that the issue at hand,of monkeys causing a nuisance,is a behavioural problem and the California centre,with its expertise in the area,appears quite well-equipped to address the problem. They have helped other countries address similar issues. We are pinning our hopes on finding a solution with their help,” said Bonal.

The CNPRC,on its website,lists the Indian project among its current conservation-oriented projects that focus on the management of animal populations through scientific evaluation and assessment. “The aims of these interdisciplinary projects are to characterise behavior and health dynamics,and processes underlying human-Rhesus interaction in northern India to inform the creation of conflict mitigation plans and policy,” it says.