Forest officials rescued around 60 Bonnet Macaques (monkeys), a species of Macaque endemic to south India, in Chamarajanagar district of Karnataka, thanks to a mobile phone video. The monkeys, both adults and babies, were trapped in small cages and were not given food or water for about three days. After being rescued in Kagalvadi village near Yelandur, forest officials released them in the forests surrounding Biligiriranga Hills, a tiger reserve in the district, on Saturday evening.
A resident of Kagalvadi village, Pramod Chakravathi was instrumental in the release of the monkeys, he was the one who took the video of the caged monkeys and shared it with forest officials. Speaking to TNM, he said, “The condition of the monkeys was pathetic, they didn’t have any space to even breathe in the cage. In addition, they had gone for days without food or water.” He added that, “Had forest officials not acted in time, then, many of the monkeys would have died.”
The villagers of Kagalvadi had apparently engaged monkey catchers from Pandavapura of Mandya district for Rs 30,000 to catch the Bonnet Macaques, which they said were raiding crops and entering households.
The monkey catching operation went on for about three days and as many as 60 of the monkeys were caught and caged. Pramod, who was an eyewitness to the caging, said, “Some of them even sustained minor injuries since there was very little space in the cage.”
Raising objections to the manner in which the catchers had caged these trapped monkeys, he said “Had the monkey catchers kept the monkeys in a more spacious cage and even offered food and water before they were moved from Kagalvadi, there would have been no issue. But, it was a pathetic sight.”
For some time, the people of Kagalvadi village have been complaining about the monkeys. One of the villagers even said that the monkeys enter the households by lifting the tiles on the roofs. Repeated pleas to get these monkeys driven out did not yield results, so they took the decision of hiring monkey catchers to trap and transport the monkeys to another location.
When TNM reached out to the Kagalvadi Gram Panchayat Development Officer (PDO), Mahadevaswami, he did not respond. Director of BR Hills Tiger Reserve, Santosh Kumar said, “As soon as we learnt about monkeys caged in Kagalvadi, our officials rescued them and released them in the forests on Saturday evening.”
A forest officer stated that they are gathering information on who engaged monkey catchers since it cannot be done without bringing it to the notice of Range Forest Officer (RFO) first. The people who hired the monkey catchers would face action, he said. The forest officer further added that there were no injured monkeys among the rescued and all have been released in the forest.
Late last month, as many as 38 Bonnet Macaques were killed by poisoning and their carcasses were found in Chowdenahalli of Belur taluk in Hassan district. Police and forest officials nabbed seven persons in connection with the crime and booked them under the Wildlife Protection Act.
Girisha is a freelancer who writes on forests and wildlife.