Hema Malini seeks ‘monkey safari’ in Mathura-Vrindavan to deal with ‘menace’

NEW DELHI: Mathura MP Hema Malini on Thursday raised the issue of “monkey menace” in the temple towns of Mathura and Vrindavan in the Lok Sabha and urged the central government to take immediate steps to resolve the issue, as simians had claimed lives of several people. She also demanded setting up a “monkey safari” in the religious tourism belt.
She was supported by other MPs, including Chirag Paswan from Lok Janshakti Party and Sudip Bandyopadhyay from Trinamool Congress.Sharing his experience, Bandyopadhyay, said that his spectacles were swiftly snatched by a monkey during his visit to Vrindavan and “they were duly returned after a few tetra packs of Fruity were offered to the simian”. In fact, notices have been put up in the area advising people to keep everything, including spectacles, in their pockets, he said.
In 2014, Malini had listed “ending monkey menace” as one of her priorities. In fact, she had mooted the idea of “monkey safari” in Mathura even then, to deal with the problem. But the project did not take off.
Talking to TOI, Hema Malini said, “There is a dire need to resolve this issue now. The ministry of environment and forest should take up this matter seriously, which has not been addressed till now.”
She said monkeys in the area had become a threat to the visitors’ lives, but no one is “taking interest in the resolving the issue”.
Speaking in Parliament, Hema Malini said that attempts had been made to sterilise these monkeys, but they had turned “violent” after the procedure. “The simians, too, have the right to live and this problem can be resolved, if a monkey safari is set up there.”
Elaborating on the problems people face in the area, Malini said that due to deforestation, monkeys are forced to enter houses in search of food and “when they don’t get it easily, they attempt life-threatening attacks”.
In April this year, the Mathura MP had blamed visitors for the monkey menace in the Mathura-Vrindavan area, claiming that they were “spoiling” the animals by feeding them “samosas and Fruity”. They should be given only fruits, she said, adding that “coexistence” is the key to resolving the issue.
When former President Pranab Mukherjee had visited the Bankey Bihari temple at Vrindavan in November 2014, he was brought to the temple in a covered cart to avoid any monkey attacks. According to sources, he was cautioned to be particularly careful about his spectacles.