18 Monkeys Shot Dead for Crop Damage in Chhattisgarh Village

Raipur: In an ‘unusual’ incident, around 18 langurs were shot dead in a village in Chhattisgarh for damaging crops, prompting the forest department to begin a probe into the incident.

The incident took place in the village of Belgaon under Khamaria police station in Bemetara district, divisional forest officer (DFO) of Durg forest division Chandrasekhar Pardeshi told this newspaper on Sunday.

Mr Pardeshi led a team of forest officers to begin a probe into the incident by making a visit to the village on Sunday.

“We started the probe and seized four skeletons of langurs in the village. The investigation is going on. I cannot say how many monkeys were shot dead in the village, at this stage”, he said.

According to him, preliminary investigation suggested that a gunman was hired by the accused to kill the langurs for causing damages to the horticulture products.

“We are yet to ascertain as to how many villagers were involved in the incident”, he said.

A case has been registered against unidentified persons under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 in the incident, he said.

According to him, there were talks among some villagers that 18 langurs were shot dead.

But, four skeletons of the simians have so far been recovered, he said.

He said that the incident was unusual since monkeys are not killed by the villagers as they believe that killing of simians would bring drought to the area.