The monkeys of the Santoshpur forest in Phulbaria upazila of Mymensingh are in deep crisis. In search of food they are leaving the forest in groups and coming into villages. Their hunger has been described as "the silent cry of the forest". The four hundred or so monkeys in the forest are barely surviving on whatever visitors give them.

Local people say that when the monkeys cannot find food in the forest, they often enter nearby fields and eat papaya, bananas and other fruit and vegetables. The losses to farmers are short-lived, but because it keeps happening, worries about crop safety are growing. The monkeys sometimes turn aggressive over food, and there have been occasional attacks on children, the elderly and passers-by.

Locals say that after independence this sal forest was home to deer, bears, fishing cats, civets, langurs, jackals, porcupines, hares, monkeys and many other animals. As forest robbers freely cut down countless trees, all the wildlife except the monkeys disappeared. The natural forest was destroyed many years ago, and there are almost no fruit trees inside it. There are some fruit trees in the south of the forest, but they bear no fruit. So the monkeys approach whenever they see visitors, and the 400-plus monkeys survive on the bananas, puffed rice, nuts, chanachur, biscuits and bread they are given.

Local resident Swapan Ahmed told Jago News that for several months far fewer tourists and visitors have come. They used to go into the forest and feed the monkeys, but with fewer visitors the monkeys are spreading into surrounding areas to find other sources of food. With no fruit in the forest, the monkeys are going hungry, he said, and unless the government steps up supervision to protect them, they too will one day disappear.

Mosharraf Hossain, a mobile shopkeeper in the forest area, said the monkeys come out of the forest at dawn, and if they find no food they tear up crops. This threatens the monkeys' lives and increases the chance of human-animal conflict.

Shibbir Ahmed Liton, general secretary of Poribesh Rokkha O Unnayan Andolon (PoUA), Mymensingh, said the authorities must take proper steps to ensure nobody can cut even a single tree from the forest. The plight of the forest's monkeys is like a silent cry of the forest, he said, and if they are not treated responsibly, not just one species but the whole forest ecosystem could collapse.

Mymensingh Divisional Forest Officer Kazi Muhammad Nurul Karim said the monkeys are regularly given rice and water. Fruit saplings have also been planted in the forest and many more will be planted. He said forest officials are working with great sincerity so the monkeys can survive, and are also alert to stop anyone cutting trees in the forest.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.