PARBAT, Nov 2: As many as 217 monkeys have been caught and caged in Mahashila Rural Municipality of Parbat district after they destroyed farmers’ crops. Although it might sound odd, the local unit actually mobilized a team to catch and cage the monkeys by allocating a budget of Rs 300,000.

 The rural municipality’s spokesperson Jeevan Bikram Uchai confirmed that 217 monkeys have been caged. 
“We had no alternative to mobilizing the team after the monkeys caused a huge loss to the farmers by destroying their crops,” he said. 

 According to the local unit, they initiated the campaign after understanding the plights of all the six wards of the rural municipality. 

They plan to cage 1,000 monkeys.

 “Each household suffers losses of at least Rs 15,000 every year. 

If we take into account that we have 1,700 households, the total annual loss from monkey menace stands at Rs 25 million,” said the rural municipality’s chairman Raju Prasad Paudel. 

“If we consider that spending Rs 300,000 would prevent the loss of over Rs 25 million, the decision is not difficult to make,” he added.  The team to catch and cage monkeys was called from India. 

Locals are hopeful that they would no longer need to assign at least one person per family for daily watch on their fields if the monkey menace is taken care of.

The caught monkeys are caged in jail-like cell at Pakhapani of Mahashila-4. Chairman Paudel said they are providing over 50 kg of edibles to feed the caged monkeys. 

Locals have been donating fruits, maize, potatoes and other vegetables to aid the rural municipality. 

 
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