SRIKAKULAM: At least 45 monkeys, including baby simians and females, were found dead at a cashew orchard near Silagam village in Kaviti mandal of the district on Tuesday. Forest officials are suspecting poisoning to be the cause for their death.
Villagers found monkey carcasses along the road and alerted the forest officials. They also found a few monkeys in an unconscious state and provided food and treatment to them. However, forest officials pointed out that there no simians in Silagam, but monkey menace has been reported in Mandasa, 30 km from the village where the carcasses were found.
Locals suspect that miscreants might have poisoned the monkeys due to their menace. “They might have fed poison-laced bananas to the monkeys. We found traces of the fruit on the animals,” the villagers claimed.
Kasibugga Forest Range Officer A Murali Krishna Naidu said the simians might have been poisoned to death at another place and dumped their carcasses near Silagam village.“Mandasa, a village in the interior forest area, is nearest to Silagam and has earlier reported a presence of monkeys,” the officer said adding that they have never witnessed such mass killings of monkeys. Officials also noted that there are no fruit-bearing trees in Silagam village to attract the monkeys.
Naidu said actual reason for the death of the monkeys will be known once the post mortem report is submitted. After completing formalities, the Kasibugga range forest officials cremated the monkeys with the help of animal husbandry officials.
Samples from the carcasses were taken for further investigation.While the forest department is likely to form a special team to probe the killings, locals in nearby villages are being enquired to zero in on the reason for the mass killing.