Hyderabad: In an interesting debate on monkeys damaging crops, Assembly Speaker S. Madhusudana Chary on Tuesday suggested that Telangana monkeys be driven away with the help of Andhra langurs!
During Question Hour in the Assembly, TRS MLA Jalagam Venkata Rao said that a lot of crops are being damaged due to monkeys and asked the government what steps it was taking to control the menace.
Replying to the question, forest minister Jogu Ramanna said that no such incidents had taken place. Expressing dissatisfaction with the minister’s answer, Mr Venkata Rao said that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao himself accepted in the House that monkeys were damaging a lot of crops in the state.
He asked the government to extend compensation to those farmers who lost crops due to “monkey menace”. Mr Jogu Ramanna responded by saying that, in an order issued in 1998, the then government had exempted paying of compensation for crops damaged by monkeys.
He said that the government has decided to grow fruit plants in forests and added that once fruit was available in forests, monkeys would not venture out to human habitations.
The MLA said that the government is correcting so many mistakes done by the governments of undivided AP; similarly, this order must be changed too.
MLA Erraballi Dayakar Rao said that the incidence of crops being damaged by monkeys was quite high in Warangal district.
It was at this juncture that Mr Madhusudhana Chary intervened and suggested that the state drove away “Telangana monkeys with Andhra langurs”.
