By IANS
New Delhi : At least 50,000 monkeys might have already made their way into human habitations across India, lured by the nutritious food they get in homes, and the situation could become worse, experts have warned.
Monkeys are getting more and more urbanized and the problem is already visible in many parts of the country where monkeys raid residential enclaves, offices and markets and attack people for food.
"One reason why states are not keen to accept monkeys from other states is that they are the biggest carriers of zoonotic diseases (diseases which are transmitted from animals to human beings). Cases of tuberculosis are usually high in towns and cities with large population of resident monkeys," said Bipul Chakraborty, former scientific officer of the Central Zoo Authority.
"Monkeys such as rhesus and bonnet macaques, as well as common langurs, prefer urban areas since they get easy and nutritious food in such conditions," said Prabal Sarkar, a well-known primate expert.
About 60-70 percent of the monkey population in the country is said to live close to human habitations.
"In urban areas they live in large groups for safety reasons and whenever there is provocation they brutally attack people. Women and children are more susceptible, since they succumb to fear," he said.
They lurk in the streets, homes and market places and stalk people carrying groceries and even enter roadside restaurants. In some places, people have even stopped venturing out alone.
The problem is further compounded with the fact that their reproduction rate is very high. "In urban conditions owing to easy availability of food they can reproduce every year. And their group size simply gets bigger and bigger."
The monkey menace has attained such a huge proportion that no one seems to have an immediate practical solution.
Repeated attempts in the past to shift monkeys from human-inhabited areas to forest locations have failed.
Last year, armed with an apex court order, the Delhi Wildlife Department captured about 250 monkeys in the capital and released them in the Palpur Kuno forest in Madhya Pradesh. But soon after their release the monkeys started appearing in fringe villages and creating havoc.
Local officials refused to take any more monkeys.
An earlier attempt to shift some of the monkeys from Delhi to Philibit in Uttar Pradesh also failed due to the same problem.
Population control of monkeys is perhaps the only way out, but catching them is a problem.
"Unlike other animals which are easy to tranquillise, monkeys sit on the rooftops or on trees and any attempt to drug them is fraught with danger," said Sarkar.
"Since monkeys live in social groups, capturing a few individual ones randomly and not the whole group may split up the group's structure and can create more problems," said Joydeep Bose, an expert.