Agra: To combat increasing monkey menace in the city that recently led to the death of a 12-day-old baby and a 59-year-old woman, the district administration has asked an NGO , Wildlife SOS, to prepare a detailed plan for their sterilization.Confirming the move, divisional commissioner Anil Kumar said the NGO has been asked to prepare a detailed report as it had earlier successfully trapped and carried out laparoscopic surgical sterilization of 500 monkeys in the city. He said once the plan is received, they would take steps for its implementation.However, TOI has learnt that Wildlife SOS had already submitted a plan to tackle monkey menace in Agra a few months ago but it was put on hold as the modalities for its implementation had not been finalized.The divisional commissioner has also directed the tourism department, Agra Development Authority (ADA) and municipal corporation to put up signage boards at tourist places, urging visitors not to offer food or disturb the monkeys. Kumar said offering food to monkeys is one of the main causes of such accidents.Expressing similar views, wildlife officials said the monkey population has rapidly increased in urban areas due to the easy access to food, especially in the form of garbage, whereas in forest areas, simian troops have to forage for food.In 2016, the Agra Development Authority and Wildlife SOS had launched a simian sterilization and vaccination project on a private-public partnership (PPP) model. The team members of the NGO had then trapped monkeys from various locations in Agra and carried out vaccination and sterilization procedure using a hitech and sophisticated laproscopic surgical technique. The surgeries were conducted at the specialized operation theatres and recovery units for which the infrastructure was created ADA.During the procedure, the monkeys were marked using safe tattoos with a troop code and individual code before vaccinating them against rabies and tetanus, after which the expert team of veterinarians from Wildlife SOS conducted a sterilization surgery.According to an expert, feeding of Rhesus macaques by people for religious sentiment has habituated these animals to damaging fields, creating a nuisance in residential areas and biting people. He said these incidents have increased exponentially across Uttar Pradesh, and hence, the need of the hour is to sterilize the monkeys for long-term control of their population.

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