Monkey menace irks lawmakers in Bihar

Legislators cutting across party lines complained in the Assembly about the monkey menace in many parts of the state.

The debate, which saw guffaws from the ruling as well as opposition benches, started when two MLAs — Arun Shankar Prasad and Bhagirathi Devi — said it was a serious issue as monkeys in large number had destroyed crops in Madhubani. Bhagirathi complained monkeys took away the cooked food in her area.

“Monkeys in my constituency have become more mischievous. They harass women. Recently, one of them even teased the wife of a former mukhiya in my village. Please do something,” said another legislator, even as the House was in splits.

Prasad then suggested that the government should bring in langoors to chase away the monkeys. But the proposal was shot down by Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who also holds the portfolio of Forest Department.

“The experiment of bringing in langoors has not succeeded in Delhi. The monkeys reappear after the langoor is taken away from the troubled spot,” he said.  Those who have lost crops could claim compensation as per the prescribed rules, he added.

But the debate did not end there. One of the MLAs complained that around 700 monkeys raid his village every now and then. Since most of the complaints were pouring in from Motihari, Madhubani and Katihar, all of which share borders with Nepal, one legislator suggested that “this was an “international problem” and therefore the CM should ask the Centre to talk to the Nepal for a solution.”

The debate, which saw some light moments, eventually concluded when Modi said that an all-party committee would be set up soon to gather information from other states how it had tackled the monkey menace.