Farmers in Karkala taluk have monkeys on their backs

The conflict between ever-increasing population pressure and wildlife seems to have become acute at Karkala taluk, about 55 kilometres away from Mangalore. Farm land on the fringes of Western Ghats is now facing attacks from hordes of monkeys, causing crop damage and even endangering the safety of residents.

The farmers watch helplessly while the monkeys damage their crops. Alarmed by these developments, some elders in the society, under the guidance of the forest officials, have devised a plan to drive them back to the forests. If that doesn’t work they plan to catch and rehabilitate them at Kudremukh National Park.

In Karkala alone, the monkeys have caused crop loss to the tune of `5 crore during 2010-11. It includes paddy, horticultural crops, spices, coconut, areca and floriculture.

Over 800 small farmers have given up cultivation because of monkey menace. Two committed suicide owing to crop loss and inability to repay bank loans. About 1,800 farmers are living in abject poverty due to 75% crop damage by monkeys. Around 1,200-1,400 acres of fertile land has been left fallow.

In some areas, children have stopped going to school, fearing monkey attacks. They chase them, snatch their lunch boxes, books and even attack them. It has also caused widespread absenteeism in cashew factories, beedi-manufacturing units, areca sorting centres and even for agricultural operations.

Farmers and daily-wage earners living on the fringe areas of the Kudremukh National Park, spread over the three districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Chikmagalur are the worst hit. “The monkeys devour anything in sight—fruits, vegetables, paddy, uproot medicinal plants and even attack dogs and other domestic animals,” said Ramappa Gowda, a farmer from Inna village in Karkala.

Assistant conservator of forest (Kundapur range) Manjunath Shetty told DNA, “Our observation is that monkeys have started visiting the human habitation and the fields on a daily basis due to depletion of their food sources in the forest and fringe areas. Farmers have stopped planting wild fruit bearing trees such as wild mango, jack, different types of palms in the margin area (Haadi areas) of their fields and plantations.

“In the past, the farmers used to give the monkeys or any other animal their due share by the way of maintaining a plantation of wild fruits and berries, so that they fill themselves up and return to the forest. But now that practice is not there and hence the monkeys are invading fields and horticultural plantations.”

Deputy Conservator of Forest (wildlife) Karkala range Prakash Natalkar attributed the monkey problem to an increase in their population. “In the earlier days, people used to hunt them, but due to the stricter Wildlife Act, nobody can kill them anymore.” Moreover, the monkeys here belong to bonnet macaque variety (common langoors) and there are some religious sentiments attached to these animals among the local population, Natalkar added.

“But in some countries, the Wildlife Act provides for culling a certain percentage when the population of certain species of monkeys exceeds tolerable limits. In India, translocation and chasing were the only remedy followed by the farmers and the forest department. But they are temporary remedies,” Natalkar said.

Farmer leader BV Poojary, who had studied a similar problem in Himachal Pradesh in 2011, told DNA that “the government there had created special facilities to carry out sterlisation of male monkeys in the areas thickly populated by them. They use immobilisation darts to capture them and then carry out sterlisation. But the population comes down only after two seasons (roughly two years).”

Farmers are also angry that the forest department gives no compensation for crop loss due to monkeys as they do not destroy the plant or tree, but only take away fruits. “There is no way we can prove to the forest department that the monkeys have devoured our fruits,” laments Srinivas Bhat, a coconut planter.                                                         

District in-charge minister of Udupi Kota Srinivas Poojary, at a recent meeting, directed the forest officials to find a way out. “I don’t think the monkey park would be a right solution, but it is important to restore their food sources in the Western Ghats area. The farmers should be encouraged to plant fruit-bearing trees around their villages, as well as in the fallow government land. I heard that they have plans to distribute over 25,000 fruit trees every year in the taluks around the Kudremukh Reserved Forest and National Park, so that the monkeys need not venture into the farms,” Poojary said.