7000 Monkeys in Hyderabad, 2 lakh in Telangana?

The monkey menace has been plaguing most of the urban areas of Telangana and people have become accustomed to sharing space and food with the primate.

The forest department needs Rs. 50 crore to begin the exercise of acquiring trained trappers, infrastructure to house the trapped monkeys and their sterilization.

Official statistics show that about 2 lakh Rhesus Macaques (the most common monkey species in the state) roam freely in the state and in Hyderabad alone their number is over 7000.

The TS forest minister Jogu Ramanna had assured the legislative assembly that a pilot project in Adilabad and Nizamabad was underway to tackle the monkey menace.

The wild life regulations over both capturing and later their treatment is the cause behind delay in launching the project.
The trappers need enclosures to keep the monkeys, veterinary surgical facilities are needed for conducting vasectomies and tubectomies on the male and female monkeys respectively, and then individual recuperating cages are needed for the sterilized animals to recover for a week.

The animals have to be released into another large enclosure before being freed into the forest patches identified as suitable by the department. In the entire process, the cost of feeding the animal in captivity is also to be taken into consideration. The cost of each facility out at Rs.50 crore and cost of sterlisation equipment at Rs.25 lakh each is sending jitters to Forest Dept assigned to end the Monkey business.