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Why Women Farmers In Uttarakhand

Are Bearing The Brunt Of A Rampant


Monkey Menace
It is time we redefined what we mean by conservation and what constitutes
gender issues. I am in Almora, where a group of anguished women are
telling me how their already hard life has become harsher because of
marauding monkeys and wild boars. Their stories are heart-rending. One
woman tells me how her young daughter was attacked. Another one talks
of how she was mauled. She shows me her scars. All talk about how their
crops are being devastated. We get one-third (yield) or even less
now.Nothing is left, another says. We cant sleep at night wild boars
plunder our crops.
This comes after back-breaking work to get the food. In the Himalayas,
women (there are no men, to speak of, in agriculture in this region) collect
large loads of green fodder, carry them on their back up and down
precipitous slopes, all to feed the livestock, not for milk but for manure. The
steep mountain terraces are poor in fertility and this is the only way to
improve productivity. Now even this is threatened.
Their pain is palpable. Their livelihood is being destroyed. One woman tells
me with obvious contempt,The government says it will give us grain under
the Food Security Act. We tell them, Keep it. Your grain is substandard and
poor in nutrition. Protect our land and we will give you double the grain.
Our mandua is nutritious and healthy.

I ask them, why they are raising this issue now. After all, they have always
lived in this forested region where animal attacks are common. The older
women reply, quickly and strenuously, We have never seen anything like
this. The numbers have multiplied many times. I then say that this is
clearly because we have destroyed habitats of monkeys and other wild
animals. Forests are being destroyed and so animals are turning to human
settlements to find food. It is our fault, I say. We have not encroached on
the forests. It is the city that has grown and taken over forest habitats, they
point out. What surprises me is the next response: These are not our
monkeys. These are aggressive and violent. I probe more. The forest
department, it seems, was bringing drugged monkeys from other places
and leaving them in the forested villages. All this was being done at night
and people had no information.
This does not surprise me. Even in Delhi, where the rich and famous live,
when monkeys became a big menace they were relocated to forested
regions on the outskirts of the city. Now people like me can be wildlife
enthusiasts without having to deal with animals in their backyard. But it
does make me realise just how callous (indeed criminal) our conservation
policies are.
I summon courage to ask what they want. After all, monkeys are
worshipped as descendants of Hanuman. Will they allow killing? First, there
is silence. I can feel the tension. Then one woman bursts out, Yes. These
monkeys are not Hanuman but Bali the evil one. The rest join in. We
want the government to act. This would mean that the Uttarakhand
government would have to declare monkey vermin and then undertake
culling.

Currently, governments struggling to deal with the menace are relocating


and sterilising monkeys. This measure is clearly failing. Sterilisation
requires capturing the animal and holding it for three days before sterilising
and freeing it. The programme is designed to fail. There are too many
animals, capturing is difficult and it is impossible to know which animal has
been sterilised. Worse, there is no clear idea of the optimum number that
needs to be sterilised, so breeding continues. Primatologists say at least
one-third of the population needs to be sterilised to stabilise (not reduce)
growth. This is impossible to achieve.
What, then, is the solution? It is difficult to say. The Uttarakhand
government has recently declared wild boar vermin, but who will kill the
animal? In neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, the monkey has been included
in the category. But where are the guns? The forest department is least
bothered to help villagers. These villages are run by women; the men have
migrated or are looking for jobs outside agriculture. In one case, the women
described how they ganged up and took out sticks to beat the animal that
was marauding their field. It turned on us and we had to take cover.
The problem is urgent, real and causing huge damage and pain. It cannot
be shrugged off. It needs resolution.
This is where it gets complicated. One, the issue concerns largely women.
But who will take up this gender issue? It is women who farm the
mountain slopes. We have no time for them. Two, the issue concerns how
we practise conservation. We want the pleasure of seeing animals in the
wild, but without paying the real price of that protection. This is not
acceptable. Should not be.

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