Monkey menace is a big problem in Delhi and the surrounding areas. Hordes of monkey pick up a spot / area, not to live in, but to visit, frolic, destroy everything in sight and occasionally attack a passer by and vanish en masse, just as suddenly as they appear. I had a taste of it first hand last year, (Local Fauna).Recently, as I came out of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, I found the compound swarming with monkeys. Small, tiny, medium and big. Hopping, jumping, walking, sitting, monkeys everywhere. These are seriously city smart monkeys and not to be trifled with. A guard, who saw me run back inside, very kindly, escorted me right to the main gates and I was thankful for his presence.
The monkeys are not to blame. More and more houses, shops, malls, offices are coming up, depriving them of their natural habitat. They are being forced to survive in a hostile overcrowded city, and have become, really aggressive.
This morning, as I was entering the ministry premises, a man cycled past me inside the compound, at a leisurely place and behind him on the bicycle, sat a Langur. It was chained to the cycle and it sat there serenely, its long tail, hanging down and in fact was trailing on the path. There were no monkeys in sight.This was not a mere chance occurrence. Believe it or not, this is a tried and successfully tested solution to the monkey menace. It is painless and brings instant but temporary relief. The presence of a solitary langur is enough to cause the most aggressive horde disappear in a jiffy. I don’t know what the logic behind the monkey's aversion to langur, but it seems to work. The resident welfare association of many a housing estate have hired the services of men with langurs. Usually, these are street side performers who earn a living from little acts involving monkeys or langurs. All the chap has to do is to walk about the menaced area with his pet / captive langur on a leash, or cycle past and hey presto, the monkeys disappear! Curiouser & curiouser, as Alice would have said.
7 comments:
To tie in to your previous post, any recipes for monkey?
Haha! And all the best for a wonderful 2006!
There is one recipe involving baby monkeys that I read somewhere...but its too yucky to be written about!
My father-in-law used to work in an SBI office next to a derelict building inhabited by a large tribe of monkeys. Every lunchtime, the monkeys would raid the office and steal tiffin boxes. When developers tried to move in an demolish the place, the alpha male put up such a fight that they decided to leave the building to the monkeys.
I was slapped in the face by a langur in Jharkhand a couple of years ago. It really hurt. I didn't have anything on me to steal and was not threatening any infants, I just think the monkey took a dislike to me. Monkeys are just humans without inhibitions.
to be honest, i didnt take the photos. posted them justb to differentiate between the two!!
That was a revelation: I was not aware of monkeys' aversion to langurs. :) But I remember the 'monkey menace' when I used to go to Nirman Bhawan as a reporter -- which was long ago.
Biswanath, I went to Nirman Bhawan two days backa and there was a langur chained to the rails....and no monkey in sight!!!!
Me too was unware of this monkey's aversion to langurs!!!
Reading about monkeys, reminds me of this incident happened some 2 years back. I had been to a place near Vellore in Tamilnadu - to visit a temple and also sort of trekking. The temple was on top of a hill. Since there were no hotels in that place, biscuits was the breakfast for us. I had almost finished a pack of Goodday biscuits and only a half biscuit was in my hand. Suddenly a big monkey came in front of us. And I donno want made me to do like that, I stuffed remaining portion of biscuit in my mouth. This enraged that monkey and it started chasing us (2 of us)- for almost more than 50 mtrs. Luckily a localite chased that mokey away. :)
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