STATE TIMES NEWS
SRINAGAR: Dr Shehnaz Ganai on Friday called upon the attention of the Government towards the matter of urgent public importance, namely the situation that has arisen due to Monkey menace in Palera and its adjoining villages in Tehsil Mandi, like Markoot, Loil Bela, Chikri Ban, Rajpura, Bedar, Balnoi and Barachar.
Dr Ganai while raising the issue said that Jammu and Kashmir in the north to Karnataka in the south, several states in the country are struggling to contain assaults by monkeys.
She mentioned that over 250 villages in Jammu loose farm produce worth Rs 33 crore every year because of attacks by wild monkeys.
She said that our people are poor and are wholly dependent on agriculture produce, and cited rising cases of monkeys destroying property, including crops, and biting people. She said that time has come when the Government needs to wake up and take remedial measures for the menace created by the monkeys.
Citing the recent notification issued by the Union Environment Ministry, Govt of India, on 14th of March, wherein the monkeys have been notified as ‘vermin’ for the next six months, Dr Ganai said that this notification allowed the Himachal Pradesh Government to take steps for their large-scale extermination.
Such a move in our State needs, also to be taken to allow state authorities to carry out extermination of monkeys on a large scale without attracting penal provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
During zero hour Dr Ganai also raised the issue of non availability of drivers for ambulances that are lying in Poonch districts at various health centres.
She said the purpose of ambulances at these remote locations gets defeated in the absence of drives and urged the Government to provide drivers to the ambulances.
She also urged the Government to take immediate measures for starting the work on establishing the environment park at Mandi.
