The first rescue and rehabilitation centre for monkeys in the State was inaugurated at Gandi Ramanna Haritavanam near Chincholi village in Nirmal district on Sunday. It is the second such facility for the primates in the country.
To make the rehab centre a sustainable habitat for the primates, several fruit and flower variety plants, tree varieties that would given good shade and medicinal plants would be raised. Minister for Forests A. Indrakaran Reddy, who inaugurated the center on Sunday, said that the monkeys that venture into human habitations would be caught in a phased manner and brought to the rehab centre where they would be operated upon for birth control and would be released into forests against after the rehab period.
The Minister inaugurated the centre along with lab, operation theatre, mouse deer park and play-cum-recreation facilities for children such as boating and chain link on the occasion. Also, eco-huts, gazebo and park safari were inaugurated. The Minister stated that the rehab centre for monkey was built at an estimated cost of ₹2.25 crore.
Along with the Minister, District Collector Musharraf Ali Faruqui drove the safari vehicle as part of the inauguration. The Minister stated that the mouse deer park was set up with ₹8 lakh and other development works taken up with another ₹2.65 crore.
Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said the rehab centre for the monkeys opened on Sunday was also the first such facility in South India. The other such facility in the country was in Himachal Pradesh. The Minister said the rehab centre had been established in tune with the thinking of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao as he had been repeatedly impressing upon improving the green cover in the State to take monkeys venturing into human habitations back into forests.
