As many as 164 langurs were found dead near a dried-up lake at Chikti village in the tahsil on Friday. An initial report from the veterinary doctors who conducted the post-mortem has pointed out that the monkeys had died due to heat stroke. Of the 164 deaths, 29 happened in the Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra (FDCM) area while 135 died in the adjoining territorial forest.

Chandrapur has been going through the severest water crunch in recent times due to a poor rainy season — it received only 60 per cent of its average rainfall in the last season. Clearly, the writing on the wall wasn’t taken seriously by the Forest Department, which made no effort to create water holes in the crunch areas. Incidentally, the Chikti lake had dried up nearly a month ago.

Apparently shaken by the unprecedented incident, the Forest Department officials have embarked on a fire-fighting mission.

“Heat stroke is stated to be the cause of death. But we have requested Wildlife Institute of India and National Institute of Virology to collect samples and help us know if there is some disease or poisoning that may have caused the deaths,” Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) Alok Joshi said. However, he added, “Of course, the other possibilities are only conjectures.”

The PCCF claimed that monkeys are adept at finding water sources and hence it was surprising if they have died of thirst. However, wildlife experts believe that monkeys generally prefer to stick to their original source and don’t move from one area to other in search for water. “Two years ago, about 25 monkeys had died in a dried-up lake in Wardha district. Monkeys are poor water searchers,” said Nitin Desai of Wildlife Protection Society of India.

Asked if they had undertaken any water hole works, Divisional Forest Officer, Brahmapuri Division (under which the Chikti forest falls), Sanjay Thavre said, “Creating forest lakes (van talao) doesn’t help in such heat as they soon dry up. There is water in a tank about five-six km from this place.”

Joshi said such an incident was unlikely to happen unless there was no water available in the entire tahsil. “And that is not the situation.”