Mumbai’s firemen will soon have a new challenge at hand. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to train firemen to catch monkeys that enter human habitat. The fire brigade personnel will get special training from the forest department to tackle the monkey menace in the city.
The civic body had, three years back, decided to train firemen to catch monkeys but the proposal was shot down by the then BMC commissioner Johny Joseph, who had said that firemen are trained for fighting fire and not for catching monkeys. The BMC, however, has now decided to use the fire brigade to tackle the problem as there the number of monkey menace complaints from residents has gone up.
The areas that are being affected the most by the monkey menace are localities adjoining the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. The BMC’s hydraulic department employees’ colony in Bhandup is at the centre of the problem. Residents of the colony, which is right next to the national park, have to face the wrath of the monkeys, who come in search of food.
Another area that has to face the monkey menace is the BARC colony in Trombay. “There are many monkeys in this area. Sometimes they enter the houses and snatch food from the houses,” Rahul Shewale, corporator from the area, said.
The decision was taken last week in a meeting of the corporation’s apex committee, which is constituted to discuss issues related to the fire brigade. At the meeting, which was chaired by Dr Kishor Kshirsagar, deputy municipal commissioner of zone-I, the issue was raised by Mohammed Afzal, a committee member.
Afzal pointed out that whenever residents have called the fire brigade or the BMC to complain of the monkey menace; both agencies have refused to help. After discussing the issue, Kshirsagar directed the fire chief to send firemen to the forest department to get trained for catching monkeys.
“The firemen are not trained for a job like this, which makes it difficult for them to catch monkeys that enter human habitats. The complaints of monkey menace are increasing by the day, so we have decided to send firemen to get training from the forest department,” Kshirsagar said.
