HYDERABAD: One of the often repeated, and yet unfulfilled, promises of TRS chief and caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s government is solving the issue of monkey menace that has been badly affecting the farming community in several districts across the State.
This man-monkey conflict is not just restricted to rural areas but is also prevalent in urban areas like Hyderabad, where the problem is most common in locations like Marredpally, Asifnagar and DD Colony. While there has not been much progress on the promise made by the TRS government, the lack of any concrete measures to address the issue comes as a surprise as it was way back in 2015 that the forest department had chalked out a Rs 30 crore plan to establish monkey rescue and rehabilitation centres across five forest circles in the State — one each in Hyderabad and the erstwhile Adilabad, Nizamabad, Khammam and Mahbubnagar districts. The purpose of establishing these planned centres was to sterilise monkeys rescued from respective zones where they are in conflict with humans and rehabilitate them in designated forest areas, where fruit trees were grown as part of ‘Telangana Ku Haritha Haram’ afforestation programme. The plan also included equipping these proposed centres with imported laparoscopy equipment to carry out the complex process of sterilising female monkeys.
However, the only task taken up under the plan is to build a structure in Nirmal district for setting up a monkey rescue and rehabilitation centre. And that is not functional yet. Forest officials were also sent to Himachal Pradesh for training on various aspects of monkey rescue, sterilisation and rehabilitation.
The Forest Department officials, meanwhile, said that they are awaiting cages — specifically designed for keeping monkeys at the centre before being rehabilitated to a forest — for which orders have been given.
The centre in Nirmal will have around 250 cages. However, no veterinary staff has been deputed yet for the centre and the officials said, it will take at least another one to two months for the centre to start functioning.