Halt monkey trapping in Puri temple: WSO

Bhubaneswar, Feb 09: The Wildlife Society of Orissa(WSO) hasquestioned the unscientific efforts to trap and relocate the commensalmonkeys of Lord Jagannath's temple at Puri.

Stating that capturing the monkeys by the Mankadia and Pahaditribes of Mayurbhanj from the temple premises in the late night hourwas cruel and harmful, Mr Mohanty said monkey catching and relocationare scientific work and could only be done with proper technical adviceand assistance.

It is tragic that no primate scientist or experts in wildliferelocation has been involved in this operation, the WSO secretary saidin spite of their best efforts, the Mankadia tribals were engaged inthe work and could manage to catch only eight monkeys.

This clearly showed that the temple administration was cluelessabout the entire operation and ham handed attempts had been made totrap them, Mr Mohanty remarked.

He said urbanization and monoculture of forest species hadirreversibly affected the environment of the monkeys resulting in risein the number of commensal monkeys in Orissa.

Since the species has been protected under the Wildlife ProtectionAct, 1972, the state government must ensure that the monkeys were notsubjected to needless pain and suffering.

The WSO Secretary said the tribals did not have any scientificknowledge about monkey groups and social structure. Ideally they someexperts should carry out the exercise.

UNI

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