HC seeks govt reply on row over catching monkeys

The monkey menace that plagues the national capital once again reached the courts when the Delhi high court was informed that the city faces a shortage of expert monkey catchers.

The South Delhi Municipal Committee has told the Delhi high court that it cannot catch the simians and relocate them due to lack of monkeycatchers. It also said that this is the job of the Delhi government’s wildlife department.

This submission led the high court today to seek the response of the AAP government on a plea demanding directions to its wildlife department to catch monkeys and relocate them to the AsolaBhatti Sanctuary in South Delhi.

A bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal issued notice to the concerned authorities and sought their replies by May 2.

The SDMC had moved an application seeking modification of the high court’s March 14, 2007 direction to the municipality to catch monkeys and relocate them to the sanctuary.

The corporation, in its plea filed through advocate Rajan Tyagi, sought modification of the 2007 order to task the wildlife department of the Delhi government to do the job. It claimed that under the Wildlife Protection Act, the Delhi government’s wildlife department was the appropriate body to carry out the direction given in the HC order.

The corporation said that it does not have the powers, nor the authority to do so, adding that it had put out several advertisements for recruiting monkeycatchers and had even increased the amount to be paid to them to Rs 1,200. Despite this, no application has been received.

It also said that it had written to the chief wildlife wardens of the Delhi government, as well as to states like Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, and Rajasthan, to provide monkey catchers, but received no response from them.

The SDMC said that the “menace” of monkeys was increasing in the residential areas near the AsolaBhatti Sanctuary as the monkeys, which were relocated there, were attacking the school-going children and others.