Ghaziabad The Allahabad High Court, while hearing a petition related to monkey menace in Ghaziabad, has impleaded the principal secretary of the UP urban development department as a respondent and directed the officer should indicate steps to ensure that the local bodies are made to take care of their responsibilities.
The petition was filed by Raj Nagar residents Vineet Sharma, a social activist, and Prajakta Singhal, a BTech student, contending the issue of human-monkey conflict was due to an alleged uncontrolled, and exponential rise of monkey population in Ghaziabad.
It has also referred to a June 25, 2016, report of the HT, titled, ‘More monkeys in urban areas of Ghaziabad than rural parts,’ that talked of the presence of 5,341 sightings of monkeys during a census conducted by the forest department in 2016 and reported 1,683 sightings of monkeys (Macaca speciosa) in the rural area of Modi Nagar and 3,658 in the urban Ghaziabad range.
“Looking at the overall fact-situation of the case, despite all respondents agreeing to the fact that the monkey menace does exist and is creating havoc with the lives of the public, none of the respondents apparently is prepared to take the responsibility to control the said menace. Each department is seeking to shift the responsibility to another,” the court said in its latest order on September 19.
The court also said that on the part of the state, “it is indicated that though a meeting of all the departments was held, therein also the responsibility was sought to be shifted on one another.”
The court thereafter directed that the principal secretary of the urban development department be impleaded as respondent (number 1A) in the case.
It also said that the district collector (Ghaziabad) sent a communication dated August 20 to the secretary of the urban development department for issuing directions in this regard; however, apparently, the said communication has not been attended to by the department.
“He (the principal secretary) would seek instructions based on the submissions which have been made in the petition specifically delineating the responsibility of the local bodies to control the monkey menace, and it would be required of respondent no 1A to indicate the steps, if any, taken and/or proposed to be taken to ensure that the local bodies are made to take care of their responsibility in terms of the Uttar Pradesh Municipal Corporations Act, 1959, and the Uttar Pradesh Municipalities Act, 1916,” the court said.
The court said the needful should be done before the next date of hearing on October 31.
The petition raises concern over health safety risks to residents and damage to household items, vegetation due to monkeys’ aggression while listing about 32 different residential areas affected by monkeys. It has also sought directions with respect to the relocation/rescue of monkeys to forests/forest-like areas in the vicinity in a time-bound manner among other measures.