Shimla: Forest Minister, Jagat Prakash Nadda, revealed here today that two monkey sterilization centres at Sastar, Hamirpur and Gopalpur, Mandi are in progress while former is scheduled to be made functional by the end of this year.
Moreover, he added that two more veterinary officers have been deputed to carry out the sterilization of monkeys whereas 2588 monkeys (1148 male & 1440 female) have been sterilized till date.
Kudos to Govt of Himachal Pradesh for opening two Monkey Sterilization Centres in Sastar in Hamirpur and Gopalpur in Kangra Districts of the State in an efforts to controll their growing population so as to minimise Man-Monkey conflict.There is a tradition of feeding monkey in Holly places, roadsides or whereever monkey gathers.We the so called civilised HUMANBEINGS themselves may be the root cause of the problem as they encouraged these animals on the one hand by feeding them while usurping primate Habitat on the other.People have left their fertile Agriculture land barren,fortess their houses and what not due to Monkey menace to safe guard themselves and their wards .It is very sad to say that people are asking Govt and Forest officials for its solution rather understandin and finding the solution to the main root cause i.e improving their habitat by planting fruit trees,avoid offering food in temples, urban locality and on the road sides apart from educating masses about the impact of these simple solutions in order to tackle this complex socio-religios-economical problems. It is a well established fact that all living things inherit the art of survival from their parrent and the type of environment in which they grow and adopt them as a tool to survive. We have provided them Fast food Restaurent by offering food, throwing eatables in open and created crunch to them by exploiting their natural habitat, wild fruits and produce for self.All offspring born(monkey) in temple area,and cities cant thrive well in their natural habitat as expected by translocating them to other places rather we are going to introduce new area for monkey menace.Sterelization is a long term biological whose result will be visible after few years provided how much and to what extent viable breeding population has been curtailed?A mass sterelization compaingn should be started in all affected areas of the state in collaboration with Animal Husbandry Deptt’s technical expertese and wildlife Deptt”s resources and active assistance and support of concerned Panchayati Raj Institutions,local people and NGOs apart from organising grassroot level awareness programmes.