HC asks MCD, city govt to tackle monkey menace together

A bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw gave the order while hearing an MCD plea for its direction to the Wild Life Department to catch monkeys as the agency does not have the trained man power to do the job.

The Delhi government, however, contended that it is the responsibility of the MCD to catch them.

"You both co-ordinate with each other after sorting out the difference and deal with the problem," the bench said and posted the matter for October 3.

The court was hearing the MCD plea for modification of its March 2007 order, which had directed the MCD to trap the monkeys and rehabilitate them in Asola Bhatti Wild Life Sanctuary on the city's outskirts.

MCD counsel Madhu Tewatia said the simians are protected animals and the Wild Life Department alone has the legal mandate to catch and rehabilitate them.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Committee, set up by the court in 2007, has filed its report saying "the trapping of monkeys from inhabited areas of Delhi and other translocation of Asola Bhatti Wild Life Sanctuary is in progress."

It claimed till June 30, out of 14,789 monkeys, MCD has trapped 13,336 and NDMC has 1,339 and they have been released in the sanctuary.

The six-member committee, which also included the chief wild life warden, claimed the members have visited the Bhatti Mines periodically to see if the monkeys had adapted themselves to the new place.