Uttar Pradesh: 2 villagers in Sikandarpur dress as bears to scare monkeys away

Two villagers in Sikandarpur, Uttar Pradesh are dressing as bears to tackle more than 2,000 monkeys which have created chaos and disturbed the lives of the villagers. According to a local media outlet, the residents of the village have taken the matter in their hands after the forest authorities turned blind eye to the issue. The two villagers have come up with new ways to keep the monkey away from their crops and started to dress like bears. 

While speaking to a local media outlet, village head Ram Lalit Verma said that the villagers have started to take turns in wearing the bear costume and started to roam around the village. He further added that the villagers have contributed money and bought the costumes from a makeup artist for Rs 1,700 each. Verma said that the monkey menace was going out of hands as the monkey had attacked almost 150 children in the village, however, ever since they started dressing as bears, the number has come down. 

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MN Singh, Shahjahanpur sub-divisional forest officer, further told the media outlet that the monkey population is increasing rapidly in the district and the authorities were unable to do much because of lack of funds. He also added that catching a monkey costs nearly Rs 600 and at present, the officials can only grant permission to people to catch monkeys on their own or through some NGO. Singh added that he would soon also visit the village and check if the bear trick is working and he would further also suggest the idea to other villages.

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Monkey rescue centre

As the number of monkeys is increasing day by day in Uttar Pradesh, Mathura district administration has also decided to set up a monkey rescue centre to overcome the pestering simian menace. The Chief Executive officer of the Braj Tirth Vikas Parishad Nagendra Pratap reportedly said that 25 acres of land has been transferred to the Forest department for the preliminary work. The district magistrate also mentioned that the land has been transferred to the forest department and also registered in the revenue records. 

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(with inputs from agencies)