India: Monkeys a big problem for the farming community

For ages, the country's Hindu majority has worshiped monkeys as living incarnations of "Hanuman", the Monkey-God. But monkeys have earned a bad name for their increasing attacks on human beings, among other nuisance like damaging crop etc particularly in Himachal Pradesh.

There are more than five lakh (500.000) monkeys in this hill state and out of it over 80% live in cities, towns and villages far outside the forested areas. The gravity of the situation could be judged from the fact that 2320 out of total 3200 panchyats in the state have been been badly affected by the problem.

According to survey conducted by the Gian Vigyan Samit revealed that every year crops worth rupees 400 crores are being destroyed by the monkeys and other animals in the state. Mr. Onkar Shaad, convener of the samiti said that farmers had been agitating for the past more than two years and they had submitted memorandum right up the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but no effective steps had been initiated to solve the problem.