Hyderabad: Residents move High Court to end monkey menace

Hyderabad: It is monkey business that only the courts can resolve. So feel the residents of MNK’s Vittal Central Court at Bhoiguda of the city who have moved the High Court over what is essentially a civic problem.

The apartment is regularly overrun by monkeys, residents say. Their appeals to the GHMC to remove the monkeys have gone in vain. Instead, the GHMC is asking them to remove the monkey-proof grills they had installed on their balconies for safety.

The residents fo the apartments want the court to direct the GHMC to detain the monkeys as well as suspend the GHMC order to remove the grills.

Complaints of monkeys overrunning colonies regularly come from Marredpally, Sainkpuri, Kompally, ECIL, Yapral, Alwal and other places. The monkeys destroy roof-top gardens and run riot where they can enter houses. The monkeys are harassed and pelted with stones on the roads.

Ms Renuka Regani, one of the residents, said the apartment was located on the edge of a vast open space in Padmaraonagar, where groups of monkeys stayed. These monkeys criss-cross the locality in search of food.

“We have complained to the municipal authorities several times to catch the monkeys, but they have failed to do so even though it is their duty as per Section 115 (20) of GHMC Act, 1955”, the residents said in their petition to the High Court.Their petitions were heard by Justice Challa Kodanda Ram on Friday. He issued status quo on the GHMC notices to remove the balcony grills.

Mr Prabhakar Sripada and Mr Naguluri Krishna Kumar, counsels for the petitioners, said the Himachal Pradesh government had successfully dealt with the monkey problem. “On the request of the Himachal Pradesh government, the Centre declared the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) as vermin, which allowed the government to cull the monkeys,” they said. Justice Kodanda Ram said the petitions would be forwarded to the Chief Justice to be treated as public interest litigations.