Over 2 lakh persons have become a victim of dog bites in Himachal Pradesh in the last three years from 1 April 2019 to 25 July 2021.

In addition, 12,682 cases of dog bites in livestock have also been reported in the state during the period, HP animal husbandry minister Virender Kanwar informed the assembly on the 8^th day of the ongoing monsoon session.

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Replying to a query on Palampur MLA Ashish Butail and Solan MLA Col Dhaniram Shandil, Kanwar said the stray dog population in the state was 76,933 as per the 20^th Livestock Census-2019 survey conducted by the department with 2,00,550 dog bite cases.

The animal husbandry department was implementing an animal birth control programme (ABC) in the state to control the population of stray dogs.

The stray dogs were being vaccinated with the anti-rabies vaccine to minimize the incidence of rabies in humans due to dog bites.

An amount of Rs 39.20 lakh had been released under the ABC programme and in this period, 5,468 dogs were sterilized while 40,130 stray dogs had been vaccinated against rabies, the minister said.

He stated that the state government had declared nine species of wild animals including rhesus monkeys as crop damaging animals.

“The state government has delegated the power to the chief wildlife warden and all wildlife wardens (divisional forest officers) to issue permits to hunt such animals who cause damage to the crops.

Besides, the state government has set up 7 sterilization centers at Tutikandi in Shimla, Sastar in Hamirpur, Gopalpur in Kangra, Paonta Sahib in Sirmour, Boul in Una, Sarol in Chamba, and Salapar in Mandi to control monkey population,” he added.

He added the monkey sterilization programme was started in the state on 16 February 2007 and till date, 1.70 lakh monkeys had been sterilized.

HP wildlife wing had also issued a helpline number to help the public to tackle human-wildlife conflict and monkey menace in Shimla MC Area.

In addition, monkeys had already been declared as vermin in 93 affected tehsils, sub tehsils of the state including Shimla Municipal Corporation area and Nahan Municipal Committee area.

A notification in this regard was issued on 23 April 2020 by the Union ministry of environment forests and climate change and the state government had sought further extension of the order for one more year.

As per the latest population estimation of monkeys that was done in December 2019, a total of 1,36,443 monkeys are estimated in the state.

The animal husbandry department had further ordered a study on the behavior pattern of monkeys that was being carried out to study part of sterilization behavior of monkeys.

As part of campaign to make food available to monkeys and wildlife in the forest, the department was planting 30 per cent plants of wild fruit bearing species in the plantation area.

Meanwhile, the Shimla Municipal Corporation had adopted effective solid waste management with the department starting public awareness and education programmes to educate people to desist from feeding monkeys and also to manage solid waste in the state.