Rogue Monkey Trapped Molla, Cavorim
A black faced Langur that was troubling the residents of Molla, Cavorim for the last nearly three months, has finally been caught after he was lured into the trap laid by Forest Department officials on 24th August 2012.
A large number of monkeys have been visiting Molla and Sailabhat areas of Cavorim Chandor from the time the blasting in nearby Bobcol commenced, they would only damage some horticultural crops without causing any damage to the houses or harassing the people.
However, since June this year, one monkey began harassing the locals. The monkey had taken a fascination for vehicles and would chase them whether it was a four wheeler, three wheeler, two wheeler or even the school bus. Quite often he would jump on top of a four wheeler frightening the occupants of the vehicle. Parents were worried about their children going to school as the money would not even spare the school bus.
Besides, he would jump on the roofs and destroy the tiles which proved to be quite a menace particularly since the monsoon was in its full fury during this period and life had become quite miserable for the locals.
From July onwards the monkey developed a fascination for mirrors and would break the side mirrors of vehicles and run away with them. Tiago Miranda and Benny Mascarenhas’ vehicle mirrors were taken away so often by the monkey that they did not replace them after some time. The monkey even entered Benny’s Qualis when it was parked and broke the rear mirror inside the vehicle and scampered away with it.
Although the locals complained verbally to the panchayat and the local panchayat member, no relief came from them and they were compelled to deal with the problem on their own.
Mrs. Theresa Gomes a local resident, on 2nd July 2012 complained to the Deputy Conservator of Forests after which the Forest Department officials got into action and laid a trap for the monkey on 15th July at her house.
At the same time two Range Forest Officers Prakash Salelkar and Paresh Porob camped in the village for three days hoping to tranquilise the monkey and take him away. However, the monkey proved to be smarter and dodged the officers.
As the monkey was not venturing near the trap at Mrs. Gomes’ house, it was shifted to Pascal Dourado’s house where again there were no results. About a fortnight back the trap was placed in Tiago Miranda’s property but again the monkey would not go near it.
Finally taking cognizance of the monkey’s fascination for mirrors, Wild Life Rescue Squad official Julio Quadros decided to use mirrors as bait; and that did the trick as the monkey leapt in the cage to grab the mirrors placed there and was trapped.