Gorilla costumes help sarpanches tackle monkey menace in Karimnagar

Newly elected sarpanches in the erstwhile Karimnagar district are using innovative methods, including gorilla mascot costumes, to tackle the monkey menace. While temporary relief is seen, controversy has erupted in some districts over reported stray dog killings.

Karimnagar: With the monkey and dog menace emerging as a major challenge for newly elected sarpanches in rural areas of the erstwhile Karimnagar district, many are trying innovative approaches and tricks.

Since the problem is severe across villages, sarpanch candidates were questioned about it when they approached people seeking votes before the gram panchayat elections. In a bid to secure votes, candidates promised to resolve both issues within a short period after their election. Going a step further, some of them had already begun catching monkeys by deploying trained monkey catchers. To fulfil their poll promises, sarpanches have now stepped up efforts. While some have engaged monkey catchers, a majority are deploying men to move around villages wearing gorilla mascot costumes to scare away monkeys.

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As the experiment yielded positive results in Karimpet of Shankarapatnam mandal, gram panchayat members decided to engage another person for the same purpose. A similar method is also being implemented in Gunjapadugu of Manthani rural mandal, Mandepalli of Thangallapalli mandal, Nagampet of Ghambiraopet mandal and other villages. In Nagampet, sarpanch Maddula Nagireddy himself wore a gorilla costume and made rounds of the village to drive away monkeys.

Though these efforts have provided temporary relief from monkeys, sarpanches are yet to find a lasting solution to the stray dog menace. Mass killing of stray dogs in a few districts such as Nagarkurnool, Rangareddy and Jagtial has triggered controversy, with dogs reportedly poisoned. Following complaints from animal activists, police registered cases.

In Jagtial, Pegadapalli police registered a case over the large-scale killing of stray dogs reported on January 22. According to animal rights activists, several stray dogs were killed using poisonous injections in Pegadapalli.dapalli.