The Centre declared monkeys as vermin in the Shimla Municipal Corporation area in March this year and in 38 other Tehsils on May 7, 2016. Farmers have urged the State government to approach the Supreme Court to have the stay vacated, and also demanded that the State government help farmers by engaging professionals to cull the wild animals that had exceeded the “carrying capacity” of the area. He said the State government had failed to depute sharp-shooters to cull the Rhesus Macaque monkeys that have been declared vermin in the hill State, and had left it to farmers to arrange for their culling. Animal rights activists immediately obtained a stay against this notification of the Union Environment and Forest Ministry in the high court. The efforts of the State Forest Ministry to fix the barbed wires with electric current outside the fields and sterilisation have all gone haywire and have been declared impractical by the farmers here.

Source: The Hindu June 11, 2016 19:07 UTC