LUCKNOW, Jan. 10 -- Even as complaints of monkey attacks, damage to property and disruption to daily life continue to rise across cities and towns in Uttar Pradesh, a bureaucratic deadlock between the forest and the urban development departments has left the state government struggling to frame a clear response as to who will catch and rehabilitate monkeys just days ahead of a crucial high court hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) petition.

Officials aware of the development said a high-level meeting convened chief secretary SP Goyal here on Friday to resolve the issue ended without a breakthrough with both the departments maintaining that the responsibility of catching, transferring, rehabilitating and feeding as demanded in t...