Monkey Menace Forces Farmers to Abandon Land in Bhojpur, Nepal

Bhojpur. The trend of arable land remaining fallow is increasing every year in Bhojpur due to the trouble caused by monkeys. Farmers are being forced to abandon cultivation as they are unable to protect their crops from monkeys, while some families have chosen migration in search of alternative employment and safer living conditions. Rural settlements are gradually becoming deserted as the trouble from monkeys does not subside.

According to local farmers, monkeys arrive in groups and target crops that are nearly ripe. Even when they are scared away by shouting and noise around the fields, they return after some time, making control even more difficult. Some have created effigies to scare them away. Attempts to guard the fields in shifts by building sheds on the field bunds have not provided a long-term solution.