Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government has been forming squads to tackle incidents of money menace in the state, informed Odisha Forest Minister Ganesh Ram Singh Khuntia in the Assembly today while replying to a question by MLA Ganeswar Behera.

To mitigate the impact of monkeys, anti-depredation teams in each forest division are engaged in driving the monkeys away. The use of ultrasonic monkey repeller is also helping to scare monkeys away, the minister said.

In sensitive forest divisions, 'monkey squads' have been formed. In areas where necessary, experienced 'Mankedia' communities are being involved to capture monkeys. Problematic monkeys are being tranquilized and relocated to distant forests. Efforts are also being made to raise awareness among the public not to feed the monkeys, he said.

Speaking on the issue of damages causes by elephants, the minister said special teams are engaged in various regions of Odisha to drive the pachyderms back into the forests. As part of the 'Jan Suraksha Gaj Raksha' scheme, the government, in collaboration with the public, is setting up solar fencing in villages prone to elephant attacks to protect crops. Under this scheme, there is a provision of a 50% subsidy for individual beneficiaries and a 10% subsidy for group beneficiaries.

The state government has made provisions to compensate for human casualties caused by elephants with an amount of Rs 6 lakh. For crop damages, the compensation is set at Rs 20,000 per acre for paddy and other crops, and Rs 25,000 per acre for cash crops. To ensure swift disbursement of these compensation amounts, 'Anukampa App' has been introduced, Khuntia added.