Monkey trouble turns big for Karimnagar town residents

Karimnagar: Imagine opening the door in the morning and having a bunch of monkeys racing into your home, escaping with all your eatables and leaving the home a complete mess. Residents of several localities in Karimnagar are now facing this menace, with the simians even troubling while walking in the streets. There have been quite […]

Karimnagar: Imagine opening the door in the morning and having a bunch of monkeys racing into your home, escaping with all your eatables and leaving the home a complete mess. Residents of several localities in Karimnagar are now facing this menace, with the simians even troubling while walking in the streets.

There have been quite a few people who were injured in monkey attacks, while there were more incidents of people who met with accidents while trying to escape from them.

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Speaking to Telangana Today, Rajamouli, a retired government employee living in Bhagat Nagar, said the monkeys had become a major nuisance in the town.

With Rajamouli’s home having a guava tree in the courtyard, the monkeys had made it their regular spot, and apart from finishing off the entire fruit, were creating a major ruckus through the day. Unable to tolerate nuisance, he chopped off a few branches of the tree.

Another resident, Sudhakar, said that earlier, the monkeys used to get scared and flee if crackers were burst. Now, they had become braver and did not bother about the crackers.

In the wake of several complaints from the residents, the Municipal Corporation of Karimnagar has engaged a team to catch the monkeys by allocating Rs.8.5 lakh. The team, which got onto the job in June, has so far caught more than 1,000 monkeys. Since another 3,000 monkeys are estimated to be roaming around in the town, the Corporation council recently gave approval for another Rs.12 lakh to catch 1,500 more of the troublemakers. The monkey catchers are being paid Rs 8.5 per monkey. Municipal officials have identified a few points such as Pravista Apartment, Revenue Gardens, Thirumala Nagar, Pochamma Temple, KS Gardens near Kaman, Deer Park, Ujwala Park, and Girls’ Polytechnic College where the monkeys are taking shelter in the night.

Groundnuts, sweet corn, banana and other food items are placed in a big cage for a few days to attract them before catching. Whenever 50 to 60 monkeys enter the cage for food, the doors are closed.

The monkeys are later dropped in forests near Kondagattu, Jannaram, Saidapur and Kaleshwaram based on instructions by Forest officials.

Municipal veterinarian Saluwaji Sridhar said they were arranging feed at shelter points where monkeys were staying during the night, expressing confidence that the remaining monkeys would be caught soon.