GK IMPACT | Wildlife officials chase away monkeys, but villagers demand permanent solution

Bandipora: The villagers, especially the orchadists of Ahatmullah in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district have got some relief from the monkey menace as the officials of the Wildlife Department have been stationed in the village to chase away the sneaky thieves.

The officials have managed to push the monkeys into the deep forests, making their raids to the apple orchards and vegetable farms of the locals less likely.

An official of the Wildlife Department said, “We relocated 12 monkeys on an experimental basis with colour coding to check if they return to disturb the villagers.”

However, the villagers are not satisfied with this temporary measure and fear that the monkeys will return once the apple harvesting is concluded, firecrackers run out, or the officials leave.

They want the authorities to come up with a concrete and long-term solution to the problem, which has caused them economic and emotional distress for years.

Mudasir Ahmad Wani, a native villager, said, “A few officials in the Wildlife Department have been active since yesterday. The Wildlife Department officials are chasing the monkeys away. Even though the villagers have got some relief, after half an hour, the monkeys come down again.”

He said that for them the problem remains the same.

Wani suggested that the department conduct intensive research and find a way to keep the monkeys away without interfering with their natural habitat.

He also suggested that the Forest Department could play a vital role by planting more fruit-bearing plants or trees in the forest areas so that the monkeys do not come down in search of food.

Wani said that the Forest Department was carrying out plantations in lakes, but they needed to focus more on the forest areas here.

In response to the concerns, the Wildlife Department incharge, Fida Hussain said that they were creating enclosures and were in the process of planting fruit-bearing trees so that a permanent solution to the problem could be arrived at.

He said that even though the Forest Department was primarily focused on planting coniferous trees, they would take up the matter with them and ask them to identify five to six hectares inside the forests where these fruit-bearing trees could be planted.

Hussain said that the problem might persist to some extent until the trees bear fruit in the forests after plantation.

He said that they had done a similar experiment in the Ajas area of the district and that the programme was a success.

The villagers of Ahatmullah narrated their emotional turmoil about how they were losing their crops to aggressive monkeys.

The locals said that the twin villages of Ahatmulla and Checkreshipora would once produce and fulfill 70 percent of the vegetable demand of the town and its adjoining areas.

However, with the influx of monkeys over the years, they have been witnessing “economic ruin” and losing their primary means of livelihood.

They said that they had abandoned the practice, given that the produce was destroyed by wild monkeys.

With landlords focusing on horticulture now, the locals narrated that they had incurred losses in lakhs of rupees due to the rampant monkeys in and around the area.

They also blamed the random dumping of waste by the visitors to the Chiternaar forests near the village, a picnic spot, and the Forest Divisional Office for attracting more monkeys.