Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 11

Even as the Forest Department has set a target of mass sterilisation of monkeys to arrest their population growth here, the government is keen to freely distribute and popularise gulel (slingshot) to scare the simians.

Studies have revealed that though monkeys are used to gunshots, they are scared of a slingshot which has now gone missing. “We will popularise the use of slingshots and distribute these free to people so that at least the monkeys can be pushed back into the forests,” says Tarun Kapoor, Additional Chief Secretary (Forest).

Kapoor says Shimla has a monkey population of about 3,000 and a task has been set to sterilise all of them so that the state capital can be freed from the problem. “We have also decided to set up small holding areas for about 100 monkeys at three or four locations in the vicinity of the town,” he revealed. Plans to set up a big holding area for about 500 monkeys could not materialise due to opposition by locals at the sites selected near Tara Devi, Jubbarhatti airport and near Koti.

It is under Section 62 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, that monkeys were declared vermin within the Shimla MC and 39 tehsils but not even one animal was killed during this period. The period has elapsed and the Forest Department has now asked the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest to extend this period again.

The results of the last monkey census undertaken in July 2015 had indicated that there are about 2,452 monkeys within the municipal limits, which is higher than their number reflected in the last census undertaken in 2013. Sources said eight forest beats of Jakhu, Summer Hill, Glen, Kaithu, Khalini, Fagli, Tutikandi and Bharari had been declared problematic areas.

The monkey figure for Shimla indicated that their estimated density was about 0.75 group per sq km, which is very high. “This means that there is one troupe of monkeys in each sq km with each troupe having about 30 monkeys,” said a forest official.

He added that studies had indicated that the home range size of any monkey in Shimla is about five sq kms.

The high concentration of monkeys has become a cause for concern with schoolchildren and women finding it difficult to venture out as they are more vulnerable to simian attacks. There still seems to be no respite from the monkey menace even as a multi-pronged strategy is being adopted.

Govt to give it free of cost