Contain monkey menace or face contempt, HC cautions TS govt

 HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday directed the state government to take effective steps to control the monkey menace in villages as they were destroying crops, much to the dismay of farmers. In the same vein, it warned of contempt, if efforts were not initiated to control the menace on a priority basis.

The division bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice T. Vinod Kumar gave four weeks to the government to submit a status report on the steps being implemented by the authorities towards controlling the menace.

Chief Justice Aradhe said that the High Court had also given directions to safeguard people from monkeys as was done by the Karnataka High Court.

The bench was dealing with two PILs pertaining to monkey menace in villages, towns and cities.

A person from Padmaraonagar in the city had filed a petition in 2019 complaining that monkeys were attacking people but the civic authorities were not taking any action despite numerous complaints.

Meanwhile, the amicus curiae Divya Adepu, who has been appointed to assist the issue, submitted a report suggesting measures to divert monkeys away from villages to forests. The court appreciated the report and directed the government counsel to implement the suggestions made by her.

The court expressed satisfaction with the government’s contention that it had established palle prakruti vanam in every village. Fruit trees planted there were drawing the attention of monkeys. The CJ wanted to know if monkeys had started going to forests or whether they were still attacking crops.

Further hearing was adjourned to four weeks.