Monkey Business! Miscreants Throw Carcasses of 15 Poisoned Monkeys on Roadside in Karkala and Flee in Maruti Omni Van
Mangaluru: According to eye-witnesses news coming from Karaka district,, where a bizarre and merciless activity by a bunch of miscreants coming in a Maruti Omni van, and fleeing away after dumping carcasses of 15 poisoned monkeys, which took place in Baradi Kambala road in Kanthavara, Karkala District, which took place around 7 pm on Tuesday, 20 October 2020. Local people suspect that the monkeys might have been killed by mixing poison/pesticide with food somewhere else, probably in neighbouring districts. Villagers suspected that the monkeys could have been killed by monkey catchers hired by owners of horticultural gardens or farmhouses or agricultural farms as it is a common practice for farmers to employ such monkey catchers to protect standing crops.
Forest personnel who visited the spot suspected that the monkeys have been poisoned as there were no external injuries on them. Meanwhile, the farmers who are the worst affected by the monkey menace are left high and dry, even as residents and tourists in several towns and cities continue to face the terror of simians unchecked. It is learnt that some of the poisoned monkeys were seen suffering after they were thrown on the Baradi Kambala roadside from the van. The police and forest department officials were notified by the members of Baradi Friends after they saw the carcasses. Officials from the forest department arrived at the spot quickly and gathered all the necessary details, to apprehend the miscreants. A few monkeys which were struggling to live were caged by the forest dept officials and taken away for treatment.
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Few farmers say that besides destroying the farm produce, the monkeys have become a nuisance for the people, especially tourists. There are many places where people, mainly the aged, and women and the children cannot venture out alone- and therefore these miscreants go in for such senseless and ruthless acts. Besides destroying crops and biting people, the simians are known to contaminate drinking water in storage tanks, thereby transmit diseases. The simians are also responsible for causing dents on the roofs of parked cars by jumping on them- and that could be another reason that these monkeys get poisoned.
Social and animal activists have been pointing out that a long term solution needs to be put in place to tackle the problem. They say that the practice of rounding up the monkeys from urban areas and dumping them elsewhere is pointless because it only leads to a new area falling prey to the monkey menace. Some of them say the government should plant fruit trees in forest areas so that the simians are not drawn to human habitats for food and also destroy fruits/vegetables grown by farmers for their living.
