Monkey menace on rise, NDMC gets more complaints

Monkey menace continues in the NDMC area with the council receiving complaints every day. The menace has increased in some areas.

The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) is mostly relying on the men hired to mimic the voices of langurs to scare away the monkeys. Currently, 40 men have been pressed into service. The men are not under the payroll of the NDMC but are sent to the spot when the council receives complaints.

The NDMC has received several complaints from the MP bungalows in the Lutyens’ Zone, said a senior health official, NDMC.

“There is an increased concentration of monkeys in the Lutyens’ Zone with enhanced greenery in the area,” he said.

The other areas which are currently reporting a spike in monkey menace cases are Hanumandir Road, Dalhousie Road, Sardar Patel Marg, Chanakyapuri, Nirmal Bhavan,Central Secretariat and Prithvi Bhavan.

Among the hospitals in its jurisdiction, most cases are reported from the premises of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), said the official.

Buildings in the North Block and the South Block have electric wires installed to give low-voltage shocks to the monkeys. The NDMC also uses rubber bullets to drive away monkeys.

The council had recently received a legal notice from an NGO in Gujarat on the use of rubber bullets and electric wires in its jurisdiction.

The legal notice had mentioned the method harms vital body parts of monkeys, particularly pregnant monkeys. This is a violation of the Wildlife Protection Act, it said.

The council, however, has not done away with this method. In cases when the men mimicking langurs cannot drive away the monkeys, use of rubber bullets remains the only option, officials said.

“We have replied to the legal notice and asked for a better method to drive away monkeys, if they are in knowledge of it,” said the official. Officials said the council remains helpless as the new methods are not proving effective to tackle the menace.