Monkeys on top of water tanks at the district headquarters hospital in Kendrapara. Telegraph picture

Kendrapara, May 23: Thirsty monkeys are creating problems for residents of the district headquarters township by drinking water from overhead tanks of houses. In the process, they are breaking some tanks by jumping on them.

Ponds and other natural water sources have begun drying up in the summer heat. Construction of new buildings have also claimed some ponds.

This has resulted in a scarcity of water sources for the monkeys and the overhead water tanks have become their soft targets.

“They climb on top of the tanks, lift the lids to drink the water. They are not only damaging the containers but also contaminating stored water,” said former chairman of Kendrapara municipality Bijoy Krushna Sahu.

“We are thinking of covering the tanks either with barbed wire or fishing nets to keep the unruly monkeys at bay. We hope the barriers would stop the monkeys,” said Bijoy Kumar Das, a resident of Nasadipur locality of the township.

“We have received a series of complaints about monkey nuisance. All the 21 urban wards of Kendrapara municipality are hit by it. We have sought state forest department’s help,” said Sabita Sahu, vice-chairman of Kendrapara municipality.

“Monkeys have broken lid covers of water containers installed at the gynaecology ward of the district headquarters hospital. We had to replace them with new ones,” said Biraj Kishore Sahu, the chief district medical officer of Kendrapara.

Manoj Kumar Mahapatra, division forest officer, Rajnagar mangrove (wildlife) forest division, advised people to store bucketfuls of water in front of their houses to divert the animals from overhead tanks.

“This sort of typical simian nuisance is confined only to urban areas. In rural areas, there are no reports of monkeys vandalising water containers. There are abundant natural sources of water in villages. Thus monkeys never indulge in such acts,” said DFO Mahapatra.

Quite often, this coastal district bears the brunt of the monkey menace.

From time to time, almost all the 1,542 revenue villages are by and large affected by monkey violence.

Apart from launching attack on humans, the animals often ravage crops and vegetables.

Animal researchers are of the view that this typical behavioural tendency of monkeys could be traced back to the loss of the monkeys’ habitat and daily food.

This trend has apparently become pronounced since 1999 when the cyclone had caused maximum damage to tree cover.