By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 30 Sep: More than a dozen monkeys were found dead in suspicious condition in the forest of Mani Mai Temple near Dehradun-Haridwar Highway a few days ago, after which the police was busy investigating the matter. The investigation and the postmortem have revealed that the monkeys had been poisoned in an act of utter cruelty. So far, the culprit or the culprits are still unidentified but the Police claim that they will soon nab them.
The postmortem conducted on the dead monkeys found near Manimai temple on Dehradun-Haridwar Highway some days ago had been poisoned. It appears that these monkeys were probably given slow poison and then loaded in a vehicle and dumped near the Manimai Temple near Lachhiwala. A case has been registered and the Police have started checking the CCTV footage of the Highway near the temple.
While 15 monkeys were found dead, one monkey was still alive and suffering when the locals saw them and reported the matter to the Police and the Forst Department. Blood was seen oozing out of the nose and mouth of several monkeys when the Police and the Forest officials reached the spot.
In this case, Doiwala police have registered a case under the Animal Cruelty Act on the complaint of Forest Ranger Lachhiwala, Ghananand Uniyal. The postmortem was conducted by a team of veterinarians led by Dr. Pradeep Mishra from Dehradun Zoo. On the advice of doctors, viscera has also been preserved, which will be sent to Bareilly for investigation. Post mortem confirmed death due to consumption of poisonous substance. Ranger Ghananand Uniyal said that there is a suspicion that someone poisoned the monkeys and then threw them in the forest of Lachhiwala range through some means. On the other hand, SSP Ajai Singh said that a police team has been formed to search for the accused. He claimed that the accused will be arrested soon.
Veterinarian Dr. Pradeep Mishra said that the internal organs of the monkeys have been badly damaged. Also, not all the monkeys died on the same day. According to the post mortem report, there is a gap of one to two days between the deaths of the monkeys, hence it is believed that the accused was or were poisoning the monkeys daily for several days.
