JAMMU: Department of Wildlife Protection today launched a massive drive against feeding of monkeys on roads by the people.
The drive has two components- awareness of the people with respect to the habit of throwing food articles on roads and the 2nd component is collection of such food articles directly from the people.
Speaking on the occasion, Suresh Kumar Gupta, Chief Wildlife Warden said that there are instances of monkeys being injured and killed on the road which is a violation of Wildlife Protection Act. He said that the Department has put up a number of hoardings along the roads for awareness of the people against the menace of throwing food on the road for the monkeys. This is impacting the behaviour of monkeys which are getting habituated to thrown food and when these monkeys do not get thrown food they beg/steal food items from nearby houses.
He appealed to the people to cooperate with the Department of Wildlife Protection and requested that the people who want to give such food items to monkeys should hand over the same to the Department of Wildlife Protection staff so that food is given to the monkeys inside the jungle and not on the road. Because of various kinds of waste along the road and movement of people and vehicles, the food articles get infected and become a source of diseases to the animals.
The staff of the Department of Wildlife Protection is patrolling in the vulnerable points to collect the food articles to be donated for giving the monkeys and creating awareness about the issue. It was clarified that the awareness drive will continue so that adequate support from the people is garnered and those persons who will not cooperate shall be booked under law.
