Forest department rids Gorai villagers of monkey menace

Mumbai: A state forest department team rescued a monkey in a five-hour rescue operation on Monday, after it bit 11 residents of Gorai in Borivali since Saturday. While the victims, who have deep wounds, are recuperating, the forest department has advised them to get anti-rabies injections. The monkey was taken to Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

The villagers, who had created ruckus in the area over the same, had to be counselled by the forest as well as the local police as they were looking to kill the monkey for his menace. The monkey, that had entered the village on Saturday, bit a child on the same day. The next day it bit three more people including children.

The villagers, furious and concerned, decided to deal with the problem. The situation was however, reported to the local police and forest department. A team of forest officials from the Thane forest department, as well as the SGNP, rushed to the spot.

Ankit Vyas, an animal welfare officer and a volunteer with Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), who assists the forest department in rescuing monkeys, said, “I reached the spot at noon and found the locals in aggression. It was then that an extra team from SGNP had to be called urgently. The villagers wanted to kill the animal as it had also bit children. It was only after five hours that the monkey was rescued. The monkey had turned violent since the villagers begun hitting him.”

Dr Shailesh Pethe, SGNP’s veterinarian said, “The monkey had to be tranquillised by darting. Its medical tests were done and it was released back in to its natural habitat. It probably created the menace over hunger.”