House ponders on monkeys and dogs

Forest minister says sterilisation centres are bearing fruit

The Himachal Pradesh government on Monday acknowledged that monkeys and stray dogs were becoming a terror in the Capital, Shimla, and some steps were taken to tackle this problem.

In a reply in the House, the state's forest minister, Thakur Singh Bharmouri, said a monkey sterilisation centre was set up in Shimla seven years ago.

"From February 2007 to July 2014, 23,653 male and female monkeys in Shimla and surrounding areas were sterilised," the forest minister told the House.

"To speed up the process more teams were being pressed into service to sterilise the remaining monkeys. An awareness drive is on using hoardings and other means, asking people not to feed them."

The minister said due to these steps the monkey population in the area had dropped by 65,000 in recent years.

A birth control society for stray dogs has been functioning since October 2006 and has been sterilising dogs in Shimla.

Kullu Member of Legislative Assembly Maheshwar Singh said the monkey problem was so serious in the state capital that even the Vidhan Sabha was not spared. He said the dog menace was equally bad. Singh cited the recent case of a rabid dog biting 18 people in Rampur in Shimla.