Monkey-catchers in,their target minimum 400; Rs 500 per catch

The lowest bidder who has been allotted the work of capturing minimum 400 monkeys belongs to Mohali,and as per the bid,for every single catch,Rs 500 would be paid by the department. However,if they fail to catch even a single monkey,their security amount would be forfeited.

As a part of the strategy,the new team of monkey-catchers plans to catch them using nets and cages. “Usually,for a single monkey,a cage is used. But in case a whole bunch is spotted,we use a huge net to catch hold of the entire bunch,” said one of the members of the new team.

UT chief conservator of forests Santosh Kumar said,“We have been successful this time and the work has already been allotted. Though there is a deadline for it,going by the nature and practicality of work,we would still want the work to be done as soon as possible.”

In the past,the tender was floated on April 4. After it failed to elicit the desired response from the monkey-catchers,the department decided to take the plunge again. The recent tender was floated on July 25 and the last date for the submission of bids was August 13. The bidders were required to deposit an earnest amount of Rs 2,000 and in case after the allotment of tender,they failed to complete the task,the amount would be forfeited.

As per the current tenders floated by the Forest Department,as a pre-requisite,one has to have an experience of “catching monkeys with any forest department/ municipal corporation”. Further,the tender document says that it is desired that the interested firm should have an experience of having caught 500 monkeys in the past two years.

While the UT Administration has fixed the number of monkeys to be caught as 400,the scope of work can be increased or decreased depending on the work,states the tender.

In the past,a Gurgaon-based team of monkey-catchers was successful in catching 72 monkeys from sectors 26 and 27,and they were released in Kansal and Nepali forests. But after a few days,they all came back. Later,the team of experts from Gurgaon left the work midway due to the retracing behaviour of the monkeys. The department had forfeited their earnest money which was deposited as security amount due to their inability to accomplish the task. At that time,for every monkey the team caught,Rs 500 per monkey was paid to the team.

At present,the population of monkeys is pegged at 500 in the city with the majority of these in sectors 7,9,11,12,26,27 and 28. Once the team of monkey-catchers or trained individuals catches the monkeys,the department plans to release them in the forests of Kansal and Nepli.