Keeping the increasing cases of man-animal conflict in mind, the Government of Maharashtra has prepared a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to mitigate human-langur conflict in the State. With increasing human population, the number of Northern Plains Grey Langur (Hanuman langur) and Rhesus Macaque are also increasing near rural and urban areas. Feeding langurs and macaques at tourist places, temples and public places by human has become a regular practice. It has led to man-langur conflict many times as the behavioural changes of these wild animals takes place. Many attacks by langurs or macaque on people also took place. To curb such incidents, the Forest Department has prepared the SOP for capturing and releasing such individual and groups of langurs or macaque far from villages and cities.

 

As per the SOP, the district administrations will depute trained langur catchers on honorarium basis. Municipal Corporations, Municipal Councils, Gram Panchayats and other administrations should co-ordinate with Forest Department to capture and release of troubling langurs. After getting information about any property loss, death or injury, a forest team under the guidance of a Range Forest Officer (RFO) has to conduct panchanama of the site and submit the report to the department for further compensation to the victims. The Assistant Conservator of Forest, Deputy Conservator of Forest or Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) can issue capture order of troubling langurs or macaque as per the Section 11 and 12 of Wildlife Conservator Act 1972. A divisional level trained rescue team will be formed for man-langur conflict which will be responsible for rescue operations in the division. The department will also release a trained langur catcher’s list for citizens.

 

The rescue operation must have photographs and videos of the process. The release of langur should take place in forest areas 10 km away from the place of incident. A release certificate will be prepared and the forest team or the langur catcher will monitor the further movement of the individual or groups of langur. The State Government also mentioned that the compensation to the victim must not be more than Rs 10,000.