UP: 6 Monkeys Electrocuted, Buried in Budaun; 2 Held

Budaun (UP): The forest department has ordered an investigation into the case of six monkeys being electrocuted to death and were buried without notifying the department, officials said on Saturday as PTI reported.

An FIR was filed against two people in connection with the case, they said.

The incident took place at the camp office of a private construction firm employed in the construction of Ganga Expressway in Papad Hamzapur village.

The Forest department sources said that the employees of the firm had installed a separate electric wire to protect a cooler, which inadvertently caused the monkeys' deaths on Friday night.

The situation escalated when the Ganga Expressway employees buried the dead monkeys on the camp office premises without informing the authorities. Upon receiving information about the incident, the forest department intervened, exhumed the bodies, and conducted a post-mortem.

Forest department Ranger Akanksha Gupta said that as soon as the information about the incident was received, "A team led by the forest guard of our department reached there and dug a pit with a JCB and took out the carcass of the monkeys and got their post-mortem done. According to the post-mortem report, the monkeys died of electrocution." In this matter a case has been registered against two employees of the firm, Lakhan Singh and Kamlesh Bahadur Singh, under sections of Wildlife Protection Act 1972, Ranger Akanksha Gupta said.

"The carcass of the monkeys were reburied after the post-mortem, she added. 

With PTI Inputs