50L to combat monkey menace in Ratnagiri….Prafulla Marpakwar
Zilla Parishad To Set Up Over 50 Squads
Zilla Parishad To Set Up Over 50 Squads
Mumbai: Alarmed by the massive damage caused to food crops by monkeys, the Ratnagiri zilla parishad has prepared an ambitious Rs 50 lakh plan to tackle the menace.
Farmers in the Konkan region were facing a lot of problems due to the increasing monkey menace. In Ratnagiri district last year, fruit and vegetable crops worth crores were completely destroyed by monkeys. In a move to protect the agricultural produce, we have prepared a plan to tackle the menace, zilla parishad chairman Uday Bane told TOI. Farmers were left high and dry after fruit and vegetable crops were destroyed, a senior official said.
The agricultural wing of the zilla parishad had set up squads to trap monkeys, however, they turned out to be of little help. Now, the zilla parishad has decided to set up over 50 squads to tackle the menace. We will catch the monkeys and later release them into the specially created monkey zones in the forest, the official said. We plan to cover 100 villages in Ratnagiri district in the first phase. If we succeed, then we will implement it in other areas as well, he added.
When asked whether they would require permission from the forest department to carry out the monkey-trapping exercise, the official said that a proposal has been submitted to the chief wildlife warden of Nagpur.
Since it involves trapping and shifting of monkeys, we require permission from wildlife officials. We are awaiting for an aproval, he said.
Meanwhile, a senior forest official said, We are examining the proposal. Whatever the decision be, it will be placed before forest minister Patangrao Kadam.