Now, NDMC seeks suggestions from NGO to tackle monkey menace

New Delhi Municipal Council has asked a Gujarat-based NGO to suggest alternate measures to deal with the monkey menace in the national capital after the organisation served a legal notice on the civic body over its move to use low-voltage electric wires for the purpose.
NDMC has repeatedly expressed helplessness to tackle the monkey menace in areas under its jurisdiction and after failing to keep monkeys at bay even after spending lakhs of rupees, it had last month decided to put power fences or simian tape around government buildings and the residences of ministers in Lutyens' Zone of Delhi.
The tape has electric wires that could deliver a low- voltage shock to the monkeys trying to climb the buildings.

However, throwing a spanner in the civic body's plan, Gujarat-based animal rights group Ahimsa Maha Sangh had served a legal notice saying that the move was in violation of the Wildlife Protection Act.
"We have tested the method at our end and it is not harmful as these are very low voltage electric fences. So, the moment the monkeys try to climb any wall, they will receive a slight shock and will be scared away. However, if they believe that it is violation of the act, they should suggest us an alternate measure," a senior NDMC official said.
"We have responded to the legal notice saying the same that it is a tested method which is safe for monkeys. But we have also sought advice from the NGO on how we can adopt a safer method to tackle monkey menace in the area," he added.

The NDMC, which is home to the high and mighty of the city, has 8,500 monkeys.

The Parliament House, all the ministries, the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court and the residences of Supreme Court judges, senior bureaucrats and senior military officers fall within the NDMC area.
The civic body in past has tried several methods to check the monkey menace, from hiring langur handlers and using air guns and rubber bullets to arranging for proper food for them at particular feeding areas.
"The Environment Ministry had earlier objected to deploying langurs terming it a violation of animal rights, we hired a few people who would imitate the cries of langurs to scare them away. But that, too, failed in the long run," he said, adding "if all the measures we try will be banned under violation of some act or the other, what alternatives do we have to deal with the menace.