Solan, October 24
With the Ministry of Environment and Forests rejecting the state government’s proposal to develop 10 monkey parks in the state, the wildlife wing of the state Forest Department has been left with little option to control their invasion on crops which was causing an annual loss of Rs 150 crore in the state.

The officials had been banking on the ministry to approve this project which would have made available Rs 200 crore to develop monkey parks where multi-layered plantations, including fruit trees, were proposed to be planted to develop natural habitat for the monkeys.

Since the large-scale urbanization has led to cutting down of forests, the monkey habitats had been depleting at a rapid pace, causing the simians to turn to habitations or damage crops like maize, fruits, vegetables, etc.

The wildlife wing has also moved a case for declaring monkey as a vermin with the Ministry of Environment and Forests which would pave way for killing them without seeking permission of the Forest Department on the plea of causing large-scale destruction to crops. The ministry was yet to consider this demand.

Seven sterilization centres had been set up in the state to check further growth of their population. But this had not helped much.