There is a monkey problem in India. Humans have built settlements on their habitat so they invade the places where humans work and live. They intermingle with people in major cities like Delhi where people have got used to them. If you don’t bother them they won’t bother you, that seems to be the way that people deal with them. It is not always successful.
Monkeys run wild across India and large groups populate cities with attacks on humans being fairly commonplace. And they procreate effectively.
In this instance a monkey (we don’t know what species of monkey) killed a 60-year-old man and injured 10 others whilst on a rampage in a town in central India. The locals protested but everything that has been tried to deal with the “monkey problem” appears to have failed.
This wild monkey bit at least 10 people including a 15-year-old boy. The 60-year-old man died of his injuries on Tuesday. Protesters laid the man’s body in the street and demanded that police deal with the animal. In a rather strange twist, they demanded that the police arrest the monkey and charged him or her. They believe that the monkey should receive the same legal rights as human defendants. Perhaps they were Buddhists. The police officers rejected the idea because they thought that they would be a laughing stock if they brought the monkey in for questioning.
The police have captured the monkey according to The Times of India. To compound the problem there was no rabies vaccine available in the city in question (we don’t have the name). The authorities have since promised to restock the vaccine supplies.
In Delhi monkeys had become a menace across the city’s federal government properties. Guidelines have been issued to members of Parliament on the best way to handle them. In Delhi you will find red-faced rhesus macaque monkeys, who are native to the hilly forest of northern India, now inhabiting the urban environment. The problem in Delhi is particularly bad not far from the city’s Central Ridge Forest reserve where there are government buildings. Most of the employees are able to deal with an encounter but clashes are not uncommon. Monkeys have a habit of stealing phones, lunches and other items. They might tear up work files and documents after having climbed through windows into the building.
They tend to damage property at night and avoid daytime staff. The local authority estimate that there are up to 40,000 monkeys in Delhi. No solution has proved successful. On one occasion they used larger black-faced langur monkeys to scare them away but this project was banned in 2014 because animal rights protesters were against keeping the langurs captive. Now 40 talented young men pretend to be monkeys by mimicking their barks to try and scare the macaques away. Hindus feed the macaques because in their religion there is in association with the monkey God Lord Hanuman.
Although the larger languor monkeys are banned they are often kept in secret, undercover in cars to prevent them being seen by police. Indian politicians hire people who keep these larger monkeys so they are not taking their laws that seriously.
Residents of Delhi should not make eye contact with monkeys or block their path if it’s a mother with her infant. Residents are instructed to never hit any monkey. People are instructed to hit the ground with a big stick to frighten the monkey away.
Apparently, 90% of the monkeys carry tuberculosis. Children are more vulnerable to attack. Some are killed. In 2007 New Delhi’s deputy mayor Surinder Singh Bajwa was attacked by monkeys at his home and killed. He fell from his terrace causing a serious head injury from which he died.
There is a monkey problem in India and it won’t go away because there are more people every day in that large, highly populated country squeezing monkeys and all other wild species off their habitats.
