By Soudhriti Bhabani. West Bengal, India, 12:03 PM IST

If Kolkata and its vicinities are an area of surging humanity, they are also a happy hunting ground for langurs (long-tailed monkeys) these days -- courtesy the rapid urbanisation and rampant deforestation of rural areas.

With the increasing number of shopping malls, restaurants and housing projects coming up, Kolkata and its outskirts are becoming a hunting ground for langurs as they come out in search of food, posing a serious threat to humans.

'Human settlements are slowly devouring far flung areas and more and more trees are being cut. The langurs which inhabit rural areas are forced to venture into human settlements due to the loss of habitation and destruction of food sources,' said Col. Shakti Ranjan Banerjee, director, World Wildlife Federation (WWF), West Bengal.

'Langurs are creating problems in Kolkata, Howrah, South 24-Parganas, Hooghly, Birbhum, Burdwan and Nadia districts,' said Banerjee.

Experts say the situation is getting out of control, especially as there's no comprehensive study available on the population of langurs in south Bengal.

'Neither the state forest department nor any other organisation has the exact figures of the langur population in south Bengal, so nobody can take any action to control the menace,' Banerjee claimed.

Banarjee earlier said the langurs were used to getting their food from agricultural land but the excessive use of pesticides and fertiliser prevented them from surviving on agricultural crops.

To control the menace, WWF had sent a proposal for an extensive study on the langur population to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests through the state forest department.

'We had asked for a fund of Rs. 650,000 from the union ministry for conducting a study but nothing has happened in the past one year,' Banerjee said.

'To find out the reasons behind this human-langur conflict we need to conduct the survey in three stages -- assessment, analysis and management. There's no base-line data available with us.

'There could be other reasons behind this langur invasion too. For instance, if a langur gets separated from its mother or from the group, it can turn violent and cause immense trouble to the people,' he said.

Sangita Mitra, senior project officer, WWF, added: 'Artificial feeding (people feeding animals) is another bad practice that lures langurs into human settlements. Sometimes they go on a rampage if they don't get food in the locality.'

According to her, the population of langurs in south Bengal increased after 1976 when langurs were banned for laboratory tests and research purposes. Mitra is doing research on south Bengal's langur population.

'But before knowing the exact number of langurs we cannot sterilise the male members of the group,' explained Mitra.

V.K. Yadav, chief conservator of wildlife in West Bengal, however, felt that the incidents of langur invasion are sporadic. 'But whenever we are informed about any such incident we immediately rush to the spot and try to capture the animal,' he said.

A langur injured 12 people at Sankrail, about 20 km from Kolkata, in early February.

Police had to be deployed and the entire locality wore a deserted look till the forest department captured the simian.

By Soudhriti Bhabani (Staff Writer, © IANS)