PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/Dehradun
The Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) has decided to float tenders to engage professional monkey-catching teams to tackle the growing monkey menace in parts of the city.
The decision was made at a meeting chaired by the additional municipal commissioner Parveen Kumar and attended by the range officers of the Dehradun forest division. The MCD will initiate the tender process while the Forest department will provide logistical and technical support during the operation. Senior municipal veterinary officer Dr Varun Agrawal confirmed that the engagement process has been started. The municipal commissioner Namami Bansal has sanctioned the order to float the tender for deploying monkey-catching teams in identified affected zones within municipal limits.
Range officers have been directed to share a list of authorised monkey-catching teams, standard operating procedures for safe capture, relocation and relevant contact details to ensure regulatory compliance. The officials said that the operation will adhere strictly to the SOP issued by the Uttarakhand government to mitigate human-monkey conflict in urban areas.
Under the SOP framework, operations within MCD limits are to be executed at the municipal level with coordination and supervision from the Forest department to ensure animal welfare norms and legal provisions are followed.
It should be mentioned here that residents in various localities have reported increasing incidents of monkeys venturing into habitations and also causing disruption to routine life, raising concerns over public safety and property damage.
