The recent heavy rains and floods have caused much distress to farmers of S. Rayavaram mandal in Visakhapatnam district. But that has proved the least of their worries. Monkeys and the tricks they are up to are a bigger nuisance.

Monkeys are ruining the produce on the field besides articles and food items at home. The menace has assumed such maddening proportions that the distraught farmers staged a dharna in front of the District Collector’s office here on Monday, seeking the help of authorities.

According to farmers and others who participated in the dharna, monkeys come in groups and destroy all standing crops, climb coconut trees and drop the nuts, uproot plants, snatch food being taken to the fields, and enter houses and take away anything in sight.

A farmer complained that he had spent Rs 8,000-10,000 on raising corn and was expecting Rs 20,000-25,000 or so on his crop. But half of that is now lost because of the monkeys. Another farmer said there was also a great risk to infants and children, and even to adults, as the monkeys are getting increasingly aggressive.

The residents of S. Rayavaram, Aggivaram, Agraharam, Lingarajupalem, Gondrubilli, Uttarapalli and other villages in the vicinity made an attempt to rein in the pests, but in vain. Apart from raising a hue and cry and shooing away troops of monkeys, they raised black monkeys, bigger in size, to drive away the smaller ones. But the trick did not work.

The farmers said they have been faced with this problem for the past two years and that it has aggravated due to rise in monkey population.

AP Rytu Sangham’s district secretary A. Balakrishna submitted a memorandum to Visakhapatnam Collector Seshadri urging him to take suitable steps to help the farmers. The District Collector assured them that he would contact Wild Life officials to address the problem.

sarma.rs@thehindu.co.in

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