By Friday, 70 people, including two women, had applied for the position of heralu. The selection process included criteria such as the ability to chase away monkeys, being a local resident, and being from a monkey-affected area.
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The Division Forest Office has selected 26 monkey chasers. On Wednesday, it had called for applications for 20 positions, giving a three-day deadline. By Friday, 70 people, including two women, had applied for the position. The selection process required candidates to be able to chase away monkeys, to be local residents, and to be from monkey-affected areas.
“We had called for 20 monkey chasers,” said Division Forest Office Information Officer Keshar Khadka, “but after receiving requests due to corn damage by monkeys in large areas, we increased the number and selected 26. Around 1 or 2 p.m., we will publicly announce the chasers in the presence of Chief District Officer Toyanarayan Subedi.”
All 26 selected are men. The two women who applied were not selected as they live in the market area. The 26 selected monkey chasers, aged between 18 and 45, will work from Sunday until Ashwin 10 (for two months).
For this, the Forest Office will appoint them with a monthly salary of 12,500 rupees. Chief District Officer Subedi will provide training to the chasers on necessary safety measures while handling monkeys.
No government body has managed the salary or expenses for forest chasers in this way. Community forest user groups based on conservation systems within Shitganga Municipality will collect funds and provide them to the Forest Office. Out of 61 wards in the district’s six municipalities, 26 locations have been selected as highly monkey-affected areas.
Information Officer Khadka said that the selected monkey chasers will receive about three hours of training from Chief District Officer Subedi, Division Forest Office Chief Narayandev Bhattarai, and others.
They will be provided with necessary equipment and trained on methods and techniques to chase away monkeys when they damage corn in farmers’ fields. Similarly, they will be taught how to distract monkeys by giving them food from farmers’ homes and luring them back to their natural habitats.
