Shahjahanpur: A 15-year-old girl was mauled to death by a troop of monkeys while she was sweeping the terrace of her house in Tadai village in Kalaan block in Shahjahanpur district. The monkeys bit the victim, Julie Singh, on her arms, legs and shoulders, causing her to lose consciousness after she bled profusely on Tuesday afternoon. Julie was rescued by her father who heard her cries for help and rushed to the terrace.She was taken to the community health centre in Kalaan where doctors declared her dead. Police said that family members of the victim refused to allow autopsy of the body which is crucial to give compensation in such cases.According to the immunization officer posted in district hospital of Shahjahanpur, Dr S B Sachan, over 35 cases of monkey bites are being reported each day at the district hospital. In the past three months, the forest department has captured over 200 monkeys with the help of a team of experts from Mathura district and released them in the wild. The team had captured over 50 monkeys from a single house in Shahjahanpur city earlier this week. The team will head towards Khuthar, Kalaan and Mirzapur block in the next few days to capture monkeys there.Divisional forest officer (Shahjahanpur) Gopal Ojha said that various measures were being taken to curb the burgeoning monkey population in the area. “We have already called a team of expert monkey catchers from Mathura to immediately respond to complaints from locals. We will also check the situation at Tadai village where a minor girl was killed by monkeys.”Meanwhile, local residents said that monkeys were running riot in the district. Several bike accidents have been reported from the state highway near Khuthar range of forests where hundreds of monkeys roam on the road and often attack bikers. Some residents said that the district should implement a monkey sterilisation programme.Kafeel Ahmed, a resident said, “Himachal Pradesh has successfully controlled its monkey population by launching a monkey sterilization program. I think UP also needs to take such measures.”

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