The Himachal Pradesh government has urged the Centre to declare monkeys as ‘vermin’ for one more year. This comes ahead of the previous order of declaring monkeys as vermin for six months within the Shimla Municipal Corporation limits, coming to an end on September 14. Declaring an animal type as vermin allows authorities to kill them without forest department’s permission.

the Union Ministry of  Environment and Forests (MoEF) had declared monkeys ‘vermin’ for six months in  relaxation of section 62 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and the state government has now urged it to extend the  period by one more year.

The issue was raised during the Monsoon Session of the  Assembly and the members, cutting across party lines, demanded  that the Forest Department set up a task force for killing  monkeys, which had destroyed crops and forced farmers to  abandon cultivation at several places in the state.

The monkey census of July, 2015 revealed that there were  about 2,452 of the animals within the SMC limits and eight  forest beats — Jakhu, Summer Hill, Glen, Kaithu, Khalini,  Fagli, Tuti Kandi and Bharari were identified as “endemic  areas”.