Indian paradox: parrots die in nets intended for monkeys

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It should be an efficient weapon against ubiquitous monkeys. However, farmers in the Indian state Adilabad are catching more birds to these nets instead. When parrots get stuck in nylon mesh then they die surely. This information brought indian daily The Hindu. According to this report most affected areas are around villages Lingatla and Neredigonda Mandal – the same place where the Forest and Environment Minister Jogu Ramanna comes from. Anyway, we still wait for the answer from Indian authorities and the daily warns: „It can be a disaster for the avian world!“.

The corpses of dead parrots line the whole fields, especially those in mountain regions Neredigonda, Nirmal, Sarangapur, Jannaram, Kadem a Khanapul. In there, monkeys are overpopulated and local people believe that nets can discourage them from stealing their food. The paradox is that intelligent monkeys stay out of the nests and rather get round them. As for parrots, they don’t see the obstacle so get catched in large numbers when flying to feed on fields. Mostly, those are Psittacula parrots which represent species protected by the Indian law. There is no doubt that local authorities should solve this situation immediately.

Authorities deny any guilty and blame other departments for inactivity

The „monkey problem“ arised in Adilabad a few years ago when several individuals were released in local forests. Monkey did well and start reproducing fast. Their population became too big and now causes severe damage. “Controlling monkeys is the lookout of respective gram panchayats. The gram panchayats should sterilise the simians,” said Adilabad Chief Conservator of Forest T.P. Thimma Reddy. “The fund-strapped local bodies have their own limitations. The Forest Department cannot shirk the responsibility as it is that department which books a case in the event of an animal in the wild, including a monkey being killed,” counters the District Panchayat Officer K. Pochaiah.

Local people in the most affected areas started with frightening the monkeys away. Repellers are efficient however, they disturb people and only shift the ravaging of monkeys to other places. All responsible authorities don’t want to solve the issue of dying parrots in nets evidently. Without any sanctions farmers will not take the nets down for sure and more hundreds of parrots will die. It is a surprising paradox when we consider that the Indian law is very strict in case of smuggling native parrot species. Arrested people have to pay a large fine or stay in the jail.

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