When a man invades a forest to set up factories, make houses, and grow crops, the monkeys and other forest dwellers should make way.
When a monkey demands food and shelter from the man who displaced him, a man should kill him.
Or so it seems from the recent declaration of monkeys as vermin in Shimla where owing to rapid urbanization and deforestation, monkeys have taken to human habitation and agricultural farms. Being perceived as ‘menace’, men decided to get rid of them.
This is not the first case of human totalitarianism in India. In the past, wild boar and nilgai have met with similar judgement questioning their mere existence on the planet.
When Hitler unleashed a similar regime on the Jews, he was abhorred. But today when monkeys and nilgais meet such a fate, they get sanction of law. Why? Because it is convenient? There seems to be a dichotomy here.
Killing them is not a solution, it only aggravates ecological imbalance giving way to further problems. Nature has given us plenty of hints. We have lost many a species to human callousness and many others are on the verge of extinction. The forest covers are depleting, the rivers are drying up, the climate is changing.
The problem is not the monkeys but the selfish nature of humans which is a threat to not just monkeys but to all life on earth including fellow humans. It is not monkey against man but man against his environment.
Monkeys play an integral role in the ecology of their habitat. They help the forest by being pollinators, seed predators and dispersers. With monkeys gone, the forests would be adversely affected, in turn playing havoc with more wildlife, creating newer competitors for humans in form of other animals.
It is inhuman to kill. It is human to nurture and protect. Help a Monkey is an initiative towards this end, to create an environment for co-existence of men and monkeys. Not by killing, but by taking responsibility and providing for the monkeys by feeding and rehabilitating them away from human settlements, to stop reckless clearing of forests, to grow forests, to somehow undo the damage that has been done and to prevent further damage. And this is not a lone war; it requires co-operation and participation from all across the board.
Help us save monkeys and our environment.
WHAT YOU CAN DO?
Write to the authorities to roll back the vermin status of monkeys.
Feed animals
Report a sick or injured animal
Raise your voice against animal abuse
Conserve, reuse, recycle Nurture trees
Lend some space to regrow forests
