Tourist behaviour in Western Ghats robbing simians of their foraging skills, hurting forest ecosystem, activists say

The recent clampdown on overcrowding of trekking paths in the Western Ghats has opened up another debate that is now heard widely, not just on social media platforms but also in government circles. It is about how too many city dwellers roam free in the wildlife areas and display ‘fake’ one-day love towards the wildlife, particularly teasing the bonnet macaques and feeding them junk food they brought along.

With the recent embargo by the government forest department on the directions of the tough-talking Karnataka minister of forests and environment, Eshwar Khandre, to regulate the number of trekkers in the Western Ghats, the city dwellers from Bengaluru now take their cars inside the heavily wooded areas and stop for food or cigarette breaks, activists pointed out. They throw morsels of food at the bonnet macaues and tease them, sometimes even hurl stones at them, they added.

“They even act like monkeys, making all sorts of antics that belong to the simian kind. This is happening all over the forest roads in Sampaje, Agumbe, Charmady, Shirady, Hulikal and Bhagavati forest wards leading to Kudremukh. Many times even Hanuman langurs and endangered lion-tailed macaques show up by the roadside,” said Dinesh Shirady, a wildlife activist. They now have become habitual beggars and refuse to go back into the forests, he added angrily.

The bonnet macaques are also found in large numbers in the northern part of Karnataka. They have become residents of tourist towns like Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal, and they can be seen around crowded places like temples. “On the Dandeli-Bhimgad road, which is heavily wooded on both sides, hordes of bonnet macaques can be seen waiting for the tourists. They beg for food and the tourists willingly and for the sadistic pleasure give them biscuits, chips, fruits and many other things that are classified as ‘junk’ among humankind.”

Sometimes they are joined by even sambars, gaurs and chitals, the experts added. "I have noticed the macaques take packaged food from tourists and discard the wrappers in the fringe areas of the forest. These packaging materials are often consumed by chitals, gaurs, sambars who get sick and eventually die,” said Giridhar Kulkarni, a wildlife activist. The Wildlife Act clearly states that feeding and teasing wildlife is a serious offence compounded by a hefty fine and imprisonment, Kulkarni added.

Wildlife activists at the National Environment Care Federation (NECF) social media group are seething with anger at the way the tourists behave with the wildlife. Posts on their handles condemn how the tourists have made the bonnet macaques their dependents in tourist places. One of the posts made by Sahadev stated, “Bonnet macaques have forgotten their natural foraging for food in the forests but have become refugees and have become habitual beggars in every tourist place in the Western Ghats — scenic spots, temples and roadside eateries.”

Wildlife advocate Mahendra Singh told Down To Earth (DTE), “three animals that were in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Act have been denotified, including bonnet macaque, in the 2022-23 amendment to the Wildlife Act. They can co-exist in human habitations, but inside the forests, national parks, or their natural habitats, they cannot be fed or troubled. Violations will attract action under 38(j), according to the amended act. Even in the zoological parks, they cannot be fed or teased,” Singh stated.

Senior wildlife activist Dinesh Holla of the NECF pointed out, “Animals belong in the forests. The bonnet macaque is one species that keeps the forests ticking. They are the best intensive seed-dispersing species; wherever they go in the forests, they consume only half the fruit, and drop the rest to the ground, where new saplings grow. Drawing them out of the forest is a disaster that humankind does not understand. I recall that in many places in the Western Ghats where tourists visited, such as Agumbe, Charmady, Shirady, Sampaje and Hulikal, bonnet macaques were found dead in large numbers in the lockdown period during the pandemic as there were no visitors. This alarming situation indicates that they are undergoing serious life cycle changes,” Holla observed.

An official of the rank of Conservator of Forests (wildlife) told DTE, “We have put up signboards in many places in Karnataka, warning tourists against feeding or teasing the animals. Indeed, they are not in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Act after the amendment, but that does not allow us to use them for our entertainment and weaken their instincts."