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MC Shimla proposes park in Tutikandi to deal with monkey menace
After years of failure to get rid of monkey menace, Shimla Municipal administration now plans a park for monkeys in Tutikandi forest
Shimla-To deal with the menace that the monkey gangs have been creating in Shimla, Municipal Corporation has proposed a new park in Shimla, in the woods of Tutikandi, where, one hectare of area would be sealed with barb wire fences and two forest guards would be employed to make sure monkeys don’t escape. The plan proposes providing water resources, growing radish, carrot, beans etc to ensure sufficiency of food and water in the park.
That’s so nice of MC Shimla. Everyone is aware of the efficiency with which the department successfully implement its reformatory plans, especially, when it comes to tackling monkey menace and growing stray dog population.
By the way, MC had built a dog shelter near Kachi Ghati to tackle the issue of stray dogs in Shimla, which is not being used in anyway. That suggests that the shelter is closed for reason unknown. The dogs are all on the Shimla Mall, and on a sunny day, most of them enjoy sunbath in front of MC’s office.
Picture of Abandoned dog shelter in Shimla
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THE SAD TRUTH BEHIND THE STRAY DOG SHELTER IN SHIMLA (Published on Mar 8, 2012)
Video:groupusm
Published on Mar 14, 2013 (After one year)
As far as the monkeys are concerned, they have become more like unavoidable bullies in Shimla town, who could rob anyone, anywhere and most of the time, women and kids are preferred for they are easy targets. A year ago, the situation became so sensitive that people were forced to protest against the department’s inability to ensure safety against the monkey menace.
In 2011, a Senior citizen Devki Nandan Kaushik wrote to the chief justice on the menace of monkeys, langurs and dogs and the problems being faced by the residents of Shimla. After which, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Rajiv Sharma directed the municipal commissioner of Shimla and the divisional forest officer (Wildlife) to file affidavits as to what steps have taken by them check the problem.
However, nothing appealed to Municipal administration of Shimla until present date.
The main cause of failure of these two departments, Wildlife wing of Forest department and MC, to handle the issue is due to outdated methods, impractical strategies, and the lousy attitude e.g. farmers from district Bilaspur complained that there were no monkeys in their area until many were captured from troubled urban areas and released in their villages, and they started destroying the crops. No attention was paid to the fact that the growing population also required attention, and because of that, the population of monkeys went over six lacks during 2012.
In 2010, the situation became uglier when Himachal government allowed farmers to kill monkeys with other wild animals, which caused harm to crops. It was only after a Public Interest Litigation(PIL) in 2011 that the Himachal High Court directed the State Government to stop issuing such permits to the farmers and observed the following: “The state should have to protect all the beings… by giving permission to kill the problematic monkeys, the state has not understood and applied its mind to understand the basic intent of the Wildlife Protection Act and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act”
In 2012, the Forest Department had put a target of sterilizing two lack monkeys along with opening 21 sterilizing centers in Himachal by June 30 2012, which required 35-40 crores as expenditure. Hardly, one fourth of the target was achieved, and, of course, it would be idiotic to ask a question as stupid as asking about promised 21 new centers.
Wild Life Wing of Forest Department had even adopted unethical method of capturing monkeys. Public was invited to capture and handover monkeys to the department for which an incentive of Rs. 500 were being paid for each monkey captured. It’s a well established fact that the animal handling is a specialized task, for which people with adequate training are required. How could the department expect any common man to do the job. Nobody knows what method, unscientific or unethical, they would use to capture monkeys.
Previous BJP government spent near about Rs.1.5 crore on seterlization, but did not get any success in curbing the issue.
In 2013, the Congress government assured relief to the farmers, who were facing a large-scale destruction of their crops due to monkeys. For the assurance government claimed that a Rs. 100 crore monkey menace control project plan was drafted and was sent to the Central government for its approval.
However, nothing actually has been done to curb the issue. The issue of human- animal conflict in cities had began many years back, many plans and assurances were made, but the issue has rather taken a form worse than it was 5 years ago.
This time, MC Shimla’s plan for a monkey park is the latest assurance to the citizens and the tourists in Shimla. However, it is obvious that Tutikandi forests are very near to the main town, and it would need fences higher than the trees to keep the monkeys from hopping into residential areas. Further, in number, one hectare is not going to accommodate much. Let’s see, how much the plan appeals to the government.
Shimla-In yet another instance, two private bus operators in Shimla city were seen creating a nuisance for the public by jamming the traffic. A reader clicked some pictures at the BCS bust stop in Shimla city on February 19, 2022, at about 8 PM and shared them with us. The reader alleged that two private bus operators, namely ‘Komal’ and ‘Chadda’, indulged in a verbal spat, most probably over their schedule. While the drivers argued, one of the buses remained parked in the middle of the road, choking the traffic. The staff of these two buses indulged in a verbal spat for about 5-10 minutes during which the general public faced a huge inconvenience. The reader has requested the Traffic Police Shimla to take action against such operators and discourage them from adopting such a bullying attitude that they don’t even hesitate to block the entire road.
Write and Publish Blog on HW
If you have relevant issues/complains that you want the people and the government to see and read about, you can publish blogs on Himachal Watcher. Send us your blogs with pictures/videos at editor [at] himachalwatcher [dot]com
Language: Hindi and English
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Sundernagar-Many people visit the Sundernagar lake in Mandi district and litter along the road. Winds carry all those packets and plastic bottles into the lake. This practice of littering is unlawful because it costs millions in clean-up projects. It portrays a bad picture of an area. Littering is a huge threat to the aquatic life too. In my view, the solution is awareness, responsibility, sensibility and concern for nature. We as a society need to play a big role. At least, dustbins should be installed along the lake. Otherwise, the negligence in the present will affect us in near future.
-Blog and Picture By Divya Acharya, Sundernagar
Write and Publish Blog on HW
If you have relevant issues/complains that you want the people and the government to see and read about, you can publish blogs on Himachal Watcher. Send us your blogs with pictures/videos at editor [at] himachalwatcher [dot]com
Language: Hindi and English
Note For Multimedia Files: If you have high resolution images/videos (taken with smartphone/camera), then send us the originals through Google Drive or We Transfer or any other file sharing applications that suits you.
Shimla-A youth from a small town of the Mandi district – Sarkaghat- started as a freelancer and went on to launch his own start-up in 2014. By 2021, the start-up grew into a company that has garnered international clients and also designed and developed websites and web apps for several Departments of the Himachal Pradesh Government.
Netgen IT Solutions Pvt Ltd- a young agile company- has, so far, developed websites for the Department of Information Technology, Women & Child Development, Rope & Rapid Transport Development Corporation, HP Milk Federation Cooperation, and the HP AIDS Control Society.
Besides, it also developed HimSuraksha Abhiyan App (National Health Mission) and the website of the Department of Tourism & Civil Aviation along with a Services Portal.
Further, the website of the Department of Information & Public Relations and the single window system was also developed by NetGen.
Having developed over 2500 websites, Netgen IT Solutions has an imprint of having worked for clients spread over 25 countries in Europe, America, Asia and Australia.
Bootstrapped as a Start-Up on 7th July 2014, the company has evolved to offer a diverse set of services for web, e-commerce and mobile solutions that have enabled Global and Indian business to adapt to a Digital First environment. In seven years, this Shimla-based company has carved out a niche for itself.
The company started with a small team of just four people, and today it employs strong-heeled 25 IT professionals. The skillset of web developers, designers, networking specialists, social media marketers and others is expanding with the growth of the company.
To mark the NetGen Foundation Day, the company hosted a live inter-action of the team members with some clients to understand the need for future technologies and solutions for a fast-changing business environment in the shadow COVID pandemic.
Mr Rajneesh Rana, Founder and Managing Director of the company, is a computer science graduate. Speaking about the company’s journey, Rana’s says, “Stepping out from working as a freelancer at the small township of Sarkhaghat, in Himachal Pradesh, to launching a start-up company, was my first step in entrepreneurship. The company was founded on a shoe-string budget with a small capital outlay. After overcoming the initial hesitancy, we’re on the firmer ground today.”
With the growth in demand for IT Services, the company in the initial year faced manpower shortages. The management took to train and equip freshers in a mentorship program to meet its needs for IT Professionals and also to equip others to find gainful employment elsewhere. Netgen till date has trained over 50 freshers with essential and advanced IT skills. Most of them for the first time in their careers got exposure to the IT Industry.
The company’s IT Technical Team today is professionally equipped to work in 20+ technologies that can be deployed across a vast network of industries.
The Netgen team of IT professionals has expanded the services that the company now provides. A multitude of projects employing creative website design-development; customised software products; e-Commerce solutions; server administration – web security – networking services; mobile application design – development; social media marketing; stand completed.
“There is a growing demand for many other IT and IT-enabled services that the company has successfully delivered for Global and Indian clients,” said Rajneesh.
“Since the breakout of the COVID pandemic, the demand for online services has increased. It created an environment that demands moving things onto digital platform, bringing more opportunities for the IT sector ,” added Rajneesh.
“Take the case of the Government of Himachal Pradesh, India. To secure baseline health data of the over 70 lakh residents in the state and to prepare effective strategies for countering the spread of the pandemic in challenging hilly terrain, the state government needed a simple but effective IT-enabled solution to capture the data as fast as possible,” he said.
“The ‘Him Suraksha Abhiyan’ application designed and developed by NetGen IT Solutions was used by thousands of teams spread under 2300+ sub-centres. In just over a month, the software solution created successfully captured the data of over 68 lakh residents of Himachal Pradesh,” he added.
The 70:30 Percent (%) Global – Domestic revenue stream of Netgen has prepared the company to expand both its export and domestic service portfolios, said Rajneesh.
Mr Ravinder Makhaik, Director of the company says, “growing steadily, Netgen is a debt-free, profit-making company. A healthy mix of domestic and international businesses, with sound financials, gives the company strength to take up more challenging projects. Our portfolio of government projects is making good progress.”
Founded as a 1 lakh authorized capital company and with annual revenues rising at a 25 % compounded annual growth rate, the Netgen Board of Directors has decided to expand the authorized capital of the company to Rs 10 lakh to meet future growth needs.
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