HGVS organising farmers rally in Shimla on Oct 9

Shimla, Oct 7: A farmers rally is being organised here on Monday to attract government's attention towards the agricultural and horticultural losses suffered by them due to wild animals in Himachal Pradesh, an NGO today said.

The estimated agriculture and horticulture losses in the state due to monkeys, pigs and birds have reached a whopping Rs 375 crore, Himachal Gyan Viyan Samiti (HGVS) President Kuldeep Singh Tanwar told sources here.

He said apart from the financial losses, the incidences of people being attacked and injured by the wild animals have also been rising each day and that was a cause for concern.

The rally would impress upon the state and central governments to amend the Wildlife Act and check the rising population of wild animals besides revoking the ban on the export of monkeys from the country, he said.

Mr Tanwar said in the absence of any adequate response from the Centre, farmers from all over the state would protest against it outside the Parliament at Delhi next year.

For this, the NGO activists would move from house to house in the state during the next few months organising and persuading farmers to participate in the rally for getting their demands fulfilled, he said.

He said according to an estimate, 2,301 panchayats spread over 91 per cent rural area of the state were suffering agricultural losses of over Rs 375 crore due to destrvction by wildlife, he said, while urging the state government to raise the issue with the Centre.

Expressing concern over the increase in the number of monkeys in the state, he said, their numbers had swelled to 3.17 lakh in 2004 from 60,000 in 1980. Due to shrinking forests and lack of food in the reserve areas, they were shifting close to human habitations with there being one monkey on every 17 people in the state, the HGVS president said.

Solan, Shimla, Sirmaur, Bilaspur and Kangra districts of the state were the worse affected with farmers being forced to guard their fields day and night.

Mr Tanwar said despite a huge demand for monkeys from the United States of America (USA) for research work, the government has discontinued with their export from the country.

The Americans are ready to pay rupees three to four lakh per monkey exported from the country for the research work, he said, adding that this way alone, the country would be able to export 40,000 to 50,000 monkeys every year.

Both the governments should adequately compensate the farmers for the agricultural losses suffered by them, if they were against amending the Wildlife Act, he added.

UNI