Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
in farmlands in many places being completely abandoned. By various esti-
mates, the annual economic loss due to conflict is more than $50 million
USD 3 .
In the past, a large proportion of Himachal macaques were exported for
various purposes and this controlled a major part of the conflict, but in April
1978, this export was completely banned. Later during 2004-6 4 , the Forest
Department of Himachal started a translocation program that carried par-
tially captured groups to nonconflict areas or forests. Instead of taking care
of the problem, the problem multiplied. Reeling under the stress of address-
ing this issue, a multi-pronged strategy was adopted by Himachal, which
included mass education of the tourists and the general public to restrict the
feeding of macaques, legislation to fine feeding offenders, garbage man-
agement, natural habitat enrichment by plantation of natural fruit-bearing
trees, maintenance and upkeep of water holes, and mass sterilisation of the
macaques. After initial successful trials of sterilisation using endoscopic
tubectomy in females and CO 2 laser vasectomy in males, a full-fledged
mass sterilisation campaign of macaques was initiated on 17 February
2007 at the Monkey Sterilisation Centre (MSC), in Shimla, the capital of
Himachal state.
During the year 2009, two more MSCs were developed in two different
districts, Hamirpur and Kangra. With a sterilisation capacity of 5,000-10,000
macaques per year in one MSC, the objective of the sterilisation campaign
is to sterilise about 50,000 5 macaques over the next three years. To date,
more than 15,000 macaques have been sterilised. As a measure of conflict
management, 123 of the sterilized macaques were released into a Primate
Protection Park that was established on 11 March 2008 at Taradevi forest
reserve where they appear to be habituating well to their new environment.
Nearly all strategies to reduce human-macaque conflict are ineffective
in the short term. All methods require varying degrees of time before suc-
cess can be evaluated. Since extreme steps like culling have never been part
of viable solution adopted by the Himachal government, the mitigation of
the conflict can only be achieved by adopting a multi-pronged solution.
Targeting the sterilisation of only female macaques that are in direct conflict
3 Data estimates of Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti, Shimla; India's costs stand around 500 crore
Rupees (a crore is ten million).
4 Official data of Forest Department, Himachal 2004-05, from Shimla town, a total of 3,406
monkeys were captured and translocated and during 2005-06, from Shimla and other parts
of state of Himachal, a total of 996 monkeys were captured and translocated.
5 Population of macaques in towns and urban areas as per official figures of monkey popula-
tion estimation by Forest Department, Government of Himachal Pradesh, during the year
2003-04.
 
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