Bareilly: After receiving several complaints from residents and various government departments about monkey menace, the forest department is set to constitute a committee of experts to identify areas from where monkeys will be caught. According to officials, there are more than 5,000 monkeys in Bareilly district.After monkeys are caught, they will be released in a forest area, thus the committee will also have the divisional forest officer of that forest as its member.Bareilly divisional forest officer (DFO) Bharat Lal said, “Principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) Pawan Kumar has given approval to catch and release monkeys in the forest area. We will set up a district-level committee this week comprising municipal commissioner, NGO working for animals, DFO of the concerned forest where monkeys will be released and I. The committee will conduct a survey and identify the areas from where monkeys will be caught and released in the forest area.”According to DFO, the forest department has regularly been receiving complaints from residents, civic body and railway department about monkey menace.Monkeys creating nuisance in schools and hospitals are a common sight. Besides, monkeys often create havoc in localities like Civil Lines, Biharipur, Madinath, Subhashnagar, Quila and various parts of old city. Residents of these localities said monkeys enter their houses through open windows, balconies and terrace and damage eatables, household items and furniture.Dr KS Gupta, chief medical superintendent, Bareilly district hospital, said, “We receive more than 100 cases of anti-rabies vaccination daily, and majority of the cases are of dog bites, followed by monkey bites. On Monday, 120 such cases were reported. As a large number of cases are reported every day, the hospital at times runs out of anti-rabies vaccine stock.”

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