By Gokarna Dayal
Baitadi, Mar. 6 :Monkeys coming from India have destroyed the wheat crop planted in the fields of Dashrathchand Municipality, Baitadi.
The apes came to the villages of Dhaulyali, Sangdi, Pujargaun, Tripura, Pallachaudali, Aita, Bhatala, Jhaka, Budda, Khadeni located in wards 4,5,6, 8 and 10 of the municipality and ate all the wheat standing in the fields.
“The monkeys not only ate the wheat in the fields but also came into our houses and stole the food we had cooked for ourselves,” said Prayag Datta Lekhak, a local of Pallachaudali, Dashrathchand Municipality – 5.
He further explained that the monkeys also ate the potatoes the villagers had planted. “The farmers have faced a huge loss because of this,” he said.
Karna Bahadur Chand, officiating head of the district’s Agriculture Knowledge Centre, explained how destructive the monkeys were. “There is nothing that the monkeys don’t eat except mustard,” he said, adding, “They come time and again and have destroyed everything planted in the fields – banana, wheat, maize, guava, mango, papaya, litchi and the list goes on.”
Out of the 3,083 hectares of cultivable land in the district, the primates have destroyed crops grown in nearly 1,300 hectares of land, he informed.
In addition to damaging the crops, the locals say that the vexatious monkeys pose a risk to their safety.
“The cursed monkeys can attack our children,” Gopal Ram Lohar, another resident of Pallachaudali, shared his fears. “The leaders promised to drive away the simians during the local elections but the situation has not changed till now,” he added.
The monkeys have made life so unbearable in the area that people have emigrated to Terai and India, leaving behind empty villages. “We have no students in our school so we might have to close down,” Laxman Thapa, principal of Kailpal Basic School, expressed his sadness.
With the monkeys repeatedly destroying all the crops, the locals have now stopped farming altogether.
To address this monkey menace, the fifth assembly of the Dashrathchand Municipality allocated a budget of Rs. 1 million but it has not yet been utilised because the exact details on how to control the monkeys have not yet been finalised.