Nirmal: Chincholi rehab unit goes all out to fix monkey menace

The centre at Chincholi has sterilised over 400 apes so far

Hyderabad: Monkey Rehabilitation Centre at Chincholi in Nirmal, a Forest Department initiative, is yielding desired results. The centre was set up in December 2020 with a cost of over Rs 2 crore. Since then, nearly 400 monkeys have been sterilised and the centre has extended treatment in many cases. In most cases, monkeys which suffer severe injuries while fighting with their counterparts are brought to the centre.

More importantly, the department has been paying Rs 500 to panchayats for getting a monkey to the centre from their respective areas. To encourage villagers to get monkeys, the department is offering financial assistance, said a senior official from the department. Any gram panchayat from across the State can get the monkeys to the centre. While the department takes care of the sterilisation and treatment aspects, the panchayats will have to catch the monkeys and bear the transportation cost of getting them to the centre, the official explained.

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Monkey menace has been an issue in many villages, especially for those which are in the close vicinities of forests. To address this issue, the department had set up the centre, which is first-of-its-kind facility in South India. The State government set up the facility at Gandi Ramanna Harita Vanam, an urban forest park, in an area spread across 10 acres.

Apart from a veterinary doctor, four staff members work at the centre. Once a monkey is brought to the facility, the staffers check its health condition. If any ailment is detected, treatment is extended accordingly. After sterilisation, the monkeys are kept at the centre for 10 days. Then based on their recovery, the monkeys are released back into the forest as directed by the department officials.

At any given point of time, the centre can accommodate 200 monkeys and conduct sterilisations. There is demand for setting up more such centres from other parts of the State but that has to be considered only after optimum utilisation of the current unit, the official added.

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