Three to four people being bitten by monkeys daily in Shimla; 879 cases already this year

Two and a half-year-old Vedansh was playing with a plastic doll at his home in Khalini locality here on June 30 when a monkey bit him.

He was immediately rushed to a hospital. On Friday last week, the medical treatment was still on as Vedansh and his mother reached the Anti Rabies Clinic (ARC) at Deen Dyal Upadhyay (DDU) Zonal Hospital here for the third Anti Rabies Vaccine (ARV) injection to be administered.

But Vedansh's is not an isolated case.

According to the data for the past over four-and-a-half-years procured by PTI from the city's two main hospitals - Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (IGMCH) and DDU Hospital - on an average three to four persons are being bitten daily in Shimla.

As many as 5,974 persons were bitten by monkeys here since January 1, 2014, which comes to 3.6 cases of monkey-bite per day, according to the data.

A total of 1,442 persons were bitten by monkeys in 2017, 1,369 in 2016, 1,149 in 2015 and 1,135 persons in 2014.

In the current year, 879 monkey-bite cases have already been reported till July 6, the data revealed.

Many of these cases have been reported from Jakhu, Summer Hill, Khalini, Mall Road and Chhota Shimla areas, said Staff Nurse Nirmal Gupta posted at DDU Hospital's ARC.

And unsuspecting tourists constitute nearly a fifth of these victims, she added.

Monkeys are also known to remove spectacles, snatch eatables and purses from the tourists at the famous Hanuman temple at Jakhu, she added.

An official said that ARV injections are administered on the first, third and seventh day to the monkey-bite victim.

Jakhu area councillor Archana Dhawan, who received multiple monkey-bites at the ridge around two months ago, said she had raised the issue of the simian-menace in the Shimla Municipal Corporation (MC) house meeting several times.

Dhawan said monkeys were spreading "terror" in her Jakhu area where residents have been forced to live in 'iron-grill cages' to save themselves from simians who are moving freely everywhere.

A number of steps including sterilisation are being undertaken to get rid of the monkey menace, Himachal Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Ramesh Kang told PTI.

Dhawan, however, terms these steps ineffective. She demanded the state government should make a 'solid policy' to catch monkeys from human localities, leave them in the forests areas and make arrangements to provide them eatables there so that they do not move again towards human-inhabited areas.