The Uttarakhand government has decided to set up enclosures to keep monkeys at five places in the state to tackle the human-simian conflict. These enclosures would be set up in Pithoragarh, Kedarnath forest division, Almora, Chidiyapur in Haridwar and Terai west forest division. In response to a question by Bageshwar MLA Chandan Ram Das, the environment and forest minister Harak Singh Rawat said that work on construction of these enclosures would be completed in the current financial year. He said that 40,000 monkeys would be kept in these enclosures. Rawat said that from the year 2015 to 2020, the forest department has caught 38,115 monkeys. He said that these monkeys were released after sterilisation in the areas from where they were caught. The minister claimed that there are about 1.5 lakh monkeys in the state. Allaying the fears of the members the minister assured that the authorities of Uttar Pradesh would not be allowed to release monkeys caught there in Uttarakhand.
“The forest department and police deployed at the border of the two states have been directed to ensure that monkeys caught in UP are not released in Uttarakhand,’’ he said.
Thursday, 04 March 2021 | PNS | Bharadisain
