Drastic Drop In Bali's Monkey Forest Visitors

Gianyar (Antara Bali) - The number of  foreign and local tourists visiting the  Monkey Forest  at Pekraman Padangtegal village in  Bali's Ubud sub-district has dropped drastically, a local official said. 

"The number of foreign and domestic visitors to the forest has now dropped to an avarage of 200 per day while it used to be 600 per day," I Ketut Selamat of the  Monkey Forest's management, said on Friday.

Usually, during the  holiday season, the forest was visited by up to 600 foreign and domestic tourists per day.  "Now  the holiday season is over, the number of visitors is dropping low," he said,.

He admitted, however, that during the present low visitors' season it was normal for their number to decline. "But we still   hope we can still draw at least 400 visitors per day."

Adult tourists who wanted to see the approximately 500 monkeys inhabiting the forest would be charged Rp20,000  and chldren Rp10,000 per person. Balinese people could watch the monkeys free of charge.

He said the income from ticket sales was used by the Pekraman village administration to guard and maintain the forest and its monkeys, and also to finance traditional ceremonies that have to be held from time to time in the forest area.

He said the forest management was cooperating  with veterinarians at  Udayana University and  Wildlife Assessment Agency in taking care of the  500 monkeys. "The cooperation with the veterinarians is necessary to keep the monkeys in good health," he said.

The forest management was also using monkey tamers to ensure the safety of visitors entering the forest. "The monkeys tamers  will walk around in the forst to anticipate any possible undesired happening," he said.(*)