News Excerpt: 

The recent discovery of carcasses of 27 bonnet macaque monkeys in a village in Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka has highlighted the human-monkey conflict in the region as human habitations.

Bonnet Macaque

• Bonnet monkey, (Macaca radiata) is a macaque of southern India.

• The bonnet macaque is endemic to southern India.

• Bonnet macaques are endemic commensals: they are found only in peninsular India and live in close proximity with humans, adapting to habitats ranging from riverside temples to roadside fig trees.

• They have been listed as a “least concern” species by IUCN. (According to Hindu)

• They have been listed as “Vulnerable” under the IUCN Red List (According to IUCN 2015)

Threats to the Bonnet Macaque

• Farmers are contributing to the problem, by cutting down trees that produce wild fruits, which are a primary food source for monkeys, resulting in the depletion of their natural habitat.

• Threats to the bonnet macaque include human intolerance and conflicts. 

• The species is treated as a pest to crops. 

• Like many of their macaque cousins, bonnet macaques are hunted locally and sold as pets and for research. 

Problems created by monkeys:

• Monkeys caused crop losses of up to Rs 5 crore in 2020, affecting a variety of crops and forcing many small farmers to abandon cultivation. 

• Suicides have occurred as a result of the problem, as has widespread poverty and the abandonment of large areas of fertile land. 

• Children are avoiding school in some areas due to monkey-related fears.

• Various industries such as cashew factories, beedi manufacturing units, areca sorting centres and agricultural operations have also been impacted.

Conservation Efforts: 

• In response, the forest department is establishing a nursery for wild fruit-bearing trees, distributing them to farmers and planting them in affected areas.

• Farmers have taken drastic measures with many applying for gun licences not to harm the monkeys but to scare them away. 

• The Forest Department suggested the restoration of food sources in the Western Ghats area.

• Plans to distribute over 25,000 fruit trees annually in the taluks surrounding the Kudremukh Reserved Forest and Kudremukh National Park are underway.