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| Freeing Mubarak Mandi complex of the menace of monkeys not possible: experts | | |
Jammu, July 10
A suggestion was mooted for freeing the Mubarak Mandi heritage complex, within the walled city of temples, of the menace of monkeys.
Official sources said here today that a during a recent meeting of the executive committee of Mubarak Mandi restoration project, which was chaired by Minister for Roads and Buildings, Gulchain Singh Charak, Wildlife Department officials were told in clear terms that the menace of monkeys in and around the complex needed to be tackled on top priority. However, the suggestion was not accepted by the Wildlife Department officials on the ground that dislocating of monkeys could invite wrath of animal lovers across the globe because monkeys continue to be in Scheduled I.
The Department officials argued that it was not possible for them to ferry these monkeys to distance forest belts because over the years the monkeys inhabiting areas in and round the Mubarak Mandi complex had been “urbanized”. Their food habits had witnessed major change and once they were left in some forest belt they would not be able to adjust in the rural and forest environment. Either they would die of starvation or kill each other.
Another reason forwarded by the Department officials was that even if “we catch monkeys in twos or threes others will go into hibernation within the area.” In addition to this, monkeys always move in a group of seven to eight and catching them in one go was not an easy task when the mobility of monkeys was very high and next to birds. The experts said that in a group of 100 or 200 monkeys just one or two monkeys create a problem by stealing clothes or by attacking innocent people. They said “we can identify the unruly monkeys and shoot them with sedatives to facilitate their isolation from the flock of well behaved monkeys.”Their fears are that even if they are able to ferry more than 50 monkeys there would not be any major decline their population because of quick breeding and some of them, living on the nearby areas may descend on the Mubarak Mandi complex. The officials are of the view that monkeys usually do not damage any complex of their habitation. Will Charak go by the expert opinion or bulldoze their suggestions which could be fraught with serious consequences? The events during the next meeting of the executive committee in the first week of August will determine
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