THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Having found themselves at wits’ end by the persistent, irritable visits by a troop of monkeys, Pallickal panchayat is setting up a bio-barrier hoping that the simians wouldn’t venture beyond the line.
While other local bodies were busy planting tree saplings, the members of this panchayat had gone around households collecting papaya saplings.
About 50 saplings were planted in each ward, mostly on the borders, with the aim of preventing the monkeys from coming near households and farm lands.
“Monkey menace is a major issue in this panchayat.
Despite our talks with the forest department and our efforts, we have not been able to control these monkeys.
Around five wards are located close to Elambarakoodu forest and the monkeys make it a habit to frequently raid households and adjacent farms.
We thought of planting papaya saplings hoping that it would serve the food they are looking for,” says S S Biju, ward member, Molychantha.
The panchayat residents had to also deal with wild boar which would damage the farm lands.
“Many residents here are farmers and every household has a small cultivable land.
With the arrival of monkeys and wild boar, everything is ruined.
We are not able to get proper compensation due to the losses.
We sincerely hope that papaya will ward off the trouble,” says Noorjahan S, ward member, K K Konam, one of the most severely-affected wards.
Biju said that the panchayat arrived at the decision of planting papaya saplings on environment day for the common good.
The planting of saplings was organized in all wards on World Environment Day.
“Besides addressing the monkey menace, we also wanted environment day programmes to have a human connect.
In many cases, the survival rate of tree saplings is very low.
Here, papayas grow fast and give good yield.
It will also act as a barrier to the monkey attack.
We are also taking a status check on the actual state of tree saplings planted in the panchayat in previous years,” said Biju.