The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Monkeys have GHMC in a spin

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Saturday, Oct 10, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Monkeys have GHMC in a spin

The civic body is literally ‘helpless’ in curbing the menace

There are 10,000-15,000 ’nuisance causing monkeys’
Forest officials deny delay in permissions

- File photo.

Catch me if you can: Monkey menace is assuming alarming proportions in the city.

HYDERABAD: If they catch without following procedures, they are in for trouble. If they do, they earn the citizens wrath. That’s the plight of GHMC with regard to catching monkeys.

The city is not immune to monkey menace and there are perennial areas where regular complaints pour into zonal, circle and head offices. The veterinary wing catches them and lets them out into the forests of other districts after sterilisations.

Long process

But, to catch even a single monkey (mostly Rhesus); it has to take Forest Department’s permission. After a catch, a forest official ensures monkeys are segregated into males/females, kept in separate cages and sterilised at the Amberpet facility with a capacity of 250 animals.

Their feeding and shelter too is monitored before the Forest Department consents for translocation and consequent release of monkeys in designated forests. All these steps are as per the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. However, while the veterinary wing has sought permission to catch 5,000 monkeys, the department has been issuing orders allowing only 100 to be caught at a time.

“The time lag in getting permissions is causing us problems as complaints from citizens are mounting in the meantime. Local leaders too are venting their ire against us,” bemoans Chief Veterinary Officer P. Venkateswara Reddy. He has five teams of five-10 men in each of the five zones and there are an estimated 10,000-15,000 “nuisance causing monkeys” moving from place to place.

Problem areas

Marredpally, Mettuguda, Padmaraonagar, Domalguda and others are among the localities where monkey menace is rampant. “Our team tails a monkey group for a week before luring them into the net. We pay Rs. 600-800 for each monkey caught,” explains Dr. Reddy.

Last year, more than 1,800 monkeys were caught while this year already 1,200 have been captured. With limited holding capacity, GHMC had to halt the operation couple of months ago when there was a “delay” in obtaining permission from the forest department. But, senior forest officials say the issue is not about delay in permissions but about releasing monkeys and finding suitable locations. They point out that local administration and leaders of identified relocation areas were not willing to allow the release as it “was shifting the problem from Hyderabad to suburbs”. They suggest creating bigger holding capacity for sterilising. . The veterinary section does have a plan to set up an exclusive enclosure spread over 100 acres for sterilisation and rehabilitation. It’s still on paper even as GHMC has 150 pending complaints .

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