Shridhar D. Bhat and Vijaya Kumara
Abstract
A study was conducted on the loss of non-woody crops to two monkey species - Bonnet Macaque and Langur - in the Moist Deciduous Forest Belt, Uttara Kannada District (in central Western Ghats), Karnataka, India during the years 2021-24. Fifty four farmers were personally interviewed, with schedules, for their perception of loss. The farm locations were chosen based on 16 square grids that were systematically distributed, and were of 5 km2 each. Cumulatively, 11 crop species got listed; paddy and banana were the most frequent. Percent loss to each crop was worked out. Bonnet Macaque visited paddy and raided sugarcane significantly more than Langur did; damaged cardamom, pepper-vine and fed on maize also more. Langur ate banana significantly more than Macaque did; and cotton also to some extent. Lentil loss was comparable between the two monkeys. The paper discusses the contrasts between the two monkey species feeding on crops in relation to their biology and ecology. The total loss of crops in the MD belt from both the monkey species combined together was a very high of 69.04% in banana and a high of 33.21% in cotton. BM alone caused a very high damage of 64.47% to cardamom. The losses to other crop species are also stated. This study can serve as a bench mark to compare such crop and monkey interactions for future times as well as in space.