COVID-19 Lockdown: Monkeys are Suffering Shortage of Food at different Forest Tourist Spots like Gajaria Forest at Mymensingh, Bangladesh
Adnan Mahfuz Tazvir
About 400 monkeys are drying up due to famishment in the Gajaria forest of Santoshpur at Fulbaria Upazila of Mymensingh in Bangladesh. Hundreds of tourists used to gather at this spot before the spreading of COVID-19.
They would take selfies with monkeys, played and fed the monkeys different foods. Some temporary shops set up around the social monkey spot in Santoshpur from where the tourists used to buy food and serve to the monkeys.
According to Santoshpur Forest Bit Office, Mizanur Rahman, Deputy Commissioner of Mymensingh, allotted 2 tons of rice for the monkeys.
It was known, the authority instructed to feed the monkeys at 20 kg per day. Off 20 kilograms, the monkeys are being fed 10 kg in the morning, and 10 kg in the afternoon. But this amount is not sufficient as required.
The local peoples said, the monkeys are not getting enough food on the spot, and for this, the monkeys are damaging crops in the surrounding croplands in search of food.
In this regard, the forest guard of the bit office Ayub Ali said, people used to come to the spot before, at that time there was no shortage of food. Now we have got 2 tons of rice as monkey food as allocated by the Deputy Commissioner of Mymensingh. I fed it to them every morning and afternoon.
