HGVS rally highlights animal menace in HP

Shimla, Oct 9 (UNI) The Himachal Gyan Vigyan Samiti (HGVS) today held a farmers' rally here to attract the Centre and the state government's attention towards the agricultural and horticultural losses suffered by them due to wildlife in the state.

Farmers in thousands participated in the rally that began from Panchayat Bhawan and came to an end at the Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) with submitting a memorandum to Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, urging strict measures to prevent losses to them.

The wild animals in the state have caused an estimated loss of Rs 375 crore to the farmers this year alone, they said in their letter addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The farmers in the state were suffering huge losses due to increase in number of monkeys, boars, rabbits, wild buffaloes and other wild animals in the state, it said.

Besides natural calamities, the menace of wild animals has emerged as a big threat to the farmers who were suffering huge losses every year due to damage caused to their crops by these animals.

The farmers urged the Centre to initiate steps for growing more fruit bearing trees in the forests so that the wild animals get enough food in their natural habitat instead of moving close to the human habitats.

The government can also develop Protected Area Network (PAN) where these animals could be translocated, they proposed.

The farmers also demanded revoking the ban on the export of the monkeys so as to control their population, besides sterilization of monkeys.

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