The State government’s plan to establish a monkey park, on the uninhabited islands in the Sharavathi backwaters region, has been opposed by environmentalists.
Following a spike in the cases of monkeys raiding agricultural and plantation crops in Malnad region in recent times, the farmers had staged several protests demanding that the State government address the problem.
As a solution to the menace, the State government took a decision to establish the park and in the 2020-21 budget, ₹6.25 crore was allocated for the purpose.
Initially, it was planned to establish the park on 150 acres of government land near Nagodi village under Nittur Gram Panchayat limits in Hosanagar taluk.
Fearing that the project may trigger an outbreak of diseases like the Kyasanur Forest Disease (monkey fever), the residents there had opposed the project. The Nittur GP had also passed a resolution against the project.
Following this, the State government has now planned to shift the project to the uninhabited islands in Sharavathi river backwaters region.
Delegation’s visit
A delegation, comprising senior officials of the Forest and the Revenue Departments, visited three such islands near the Talakalale reservoir, a balancing reservoir of the Linganamakki dam on May 16.
Confirming this, Nagaraj L., Assistant Commissioner of Sagar sub-division, told The Hindu that a search for a suitable place is being conducted.
It may be mentioned here that in Himachal Pradesh, there are state-of-the-art monkey sterilisation and rehabilitation centres to address the monkey menace.
The State government had planned to establish the monkey park here on the same model. A delegation of officials of Forest and Revenue departments was supposed to visit H.P. to study the functioning of the centres, but owing to the lockdown, the tour was postponed.
‘Ecological imbalance’
Expressing ire against the move to establish the monkey park, Ajaykumar Sharma, an environmentalist, told The Hindu that the islands in the Sharavathi backwaters region are rich in bio-diversity and translocating monkeys there might trigger an ecological imbalance.
He expressed regret that without studying the impact, of the translocation of the primates, on the fauna endemic to the islands and vice-versa, the State government was trying to implement the project in haste.
Mr. Sharma said that the unabated destruction of forests in the name of development resulted in monkeys and other wild animals raiding agricultural lands for food.
“A monkey park is not the solution. The human-monkey conflict can be addressed by conserving the forests and by planting fruit-bearing trees on the forest fringes,” he said.
