The Forest Department would provide an incentive of Rs. 300 on killing of each monkey in those areas outside the forests where monkey has been declared as vermin.
Forest Minister Thakur Singh Bharmouri said the decision had been taken to control the population of monkeys in areas outside the forests.
Earlier, in May 2016, the Union Government has acceded the demand of the state Government, and declared Rhesus Macaque (Macaca mulatta) as vermin in 38 more tehsils of 10 districts of the State for a period of one year.
Those tehsils were
Shimla District: Shimla Rural, Rampur and Nerwa
Solan District: Nalagarh, Kasauli, Solan and Darlaghat
Sirmaur district: Pachhad, Rajgarh, Renuka, Shillai and Kamrau
Chamba district: Chamba, Dalhousie, Bhatiyat and Sihunta
Kangra district: Nurpur, Indora, Fatehpur, Jawali, Kangra, Palampur and Baroh
Una district: Bharwain, Amb, Una, Haroli and Bangana
Bilaspur district: Ghumarwin, Nainadevi, Bilaspur Sadar and Namhol
Hamirpur district: Badsar and Bijhari
Kullu district: Manali, Kullu and Sainj
Mandi district: Sundernagar
The Minister said a committee had been formed consisting of Divisional Forest Officer, Assistant Conservator of Forest and Range Forest Officer to determine and authenticate the claims for disbursement of incentives.
The Union Government had declared monkey (Rhesus Macaque) as vermin on May 2016, and in Shimla city Monkey was declared vermin in March for the period of six months. In the past five months forest and Shimla MC hadn’t killed any monkey and were busy in fixing responsibility for executing the order. With the six-month period of monkeys being declared ‘vermin’ within the Shimla MC limits coming to an end on September 14, the Himachal government has raised the issue with the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and demanded to extend it by another year.
