Jaipur, February 23 – The growing problem of monkeys entering residential areas and attacking people was raised in the Rajasthan Assembly on Monday, with Congress MLA from Shahpura, Manish Yadav, drawing attention to the issue through a Calling Attention Motion.
Responding to the motion, Minister of State (MoS) for Urban Development, Jhabar Singh Kharra, said that increasing monkey populations, food shortages, and human encroachment into forest areas have forced monkeys to migrate into villages and cities.
"Monkeys are moving between villages and urban areas, and many of them are mischievous. They attack children and the elderly. Local bodies capture them and release them elsewhere, but they return within a week," MoS Kharra said, adding that the state Forest Department needs to provide designated feeding and habitation zones as a long-term solution.
He added that the state government is making continuous efforts to release monkeys into natural habitats and is working on a permanent solution based on suggestions from legislators.
Fifty to sixty years ago, monkey jugglers would bring monkeys to villages and towns and show them to children, telling them that they were also animals.
There are two types of monkeys: the Hanuman monkey and the red-faced monkey, which biology suggests are human ancestors.
Humans, too, evolved from monkeys to humans.
"The Forest Department has now delisted monkey from the wild animal category, and now it is neither a wild animal nor a village-city animal. When monkeys are captured and released into the wild, they return to villages and cities within a week. The only solution is for the Forest Department to provide them with a place to eat and food."
MoS Kharra told the House that in the Shahpura Assembly constituency, 664 monkeys were captured and released in 2019–20, 310 in 2020–21, 919 in 2021–22, and 191 in 2022–23.
He invited suggestions from all MLAs to help the state government take concrete decisions to address the issue.
Congress MLA Manish Yadav said the problem is severe, claiming that 4,200 people in his Assembly constituency were vaccinated for rabies in 2025, and a 90 per cent of these cases were due to monkey bites, which he added is a serious public health concern.
State Forest Minister Sanjay Sharma said the Urban Development Minister Kharra had addressed issues related to the Forest Department and assured that the suggestions would be implemented.