In a shocking and bizarre incident, over 30 monkeys werefound killed at a village in Hassan district of Karnataka in the early hours ofThursday.
The incident has come to light from the Chowdanahallivillage of Belur taluk, when the local youths, after finding the gunny bagslying on the roadside, opened them.
The youths were shocked to see the carcass of monkeys inthe gunny bags. When the gunny bags were opened, some monkeys were foundgasping for breath and unable to move. As many as 20 other monkeys were foundto be injured. However, barring 2 monkeys, others have recovered and left afterlocal residents tended to them.
The locals fed the monkeys with water and vented outtheir ire on the shocking incident. Among the 20 monkeys, 18 recovered afterdrinking water and left the place. The two are being treated by the veterinarydoctors and said to be out of danger.
According to the preliminary investigations, the monkeyswere poisoned, stuffed into gunny bags, and then beaten to death by miscreants,who had thrown the bags near the roadside.
Assistant Conservator of Forests, Belur Forest RangePrabhu visited the spot. Range Forest Officer Yeshma Machamma and Forester D.Gururaj is investigating the matter.
It is suspected that miscreants had poisoned and beatenup the monkeys to death. They had brought monkeys from a different place, andwhen their plans to transport them to another location failed, they tried tokill all of them.
The forest officials said they will take the necessary stepsto bury the dead monkeys. The post-mortem has been conducted on one of the dead monkeysand preliminary reports suggested poisoning.