What's worse? 35,000 sacred cows and buffaloes roaming the streets or 10,000 to 20,000 monkeys?
Posted on 11/13/2007 4:48:44 AM PST by Aristotelian
NEW DELHI (AFP) - Just weeks after the Indian capital's deputy mayor toppled to his death fighting off a pack of monkeys, the animals are back on the attack, sparking fresh concerns about the simian menace.
One woman was seriously hurt and two dozen other people were given first aid after monkeys rampaged through a neighbourhood in east Delhi over the weekend.
"There were about three or four monkeys involved," deputy police commissioner Jaspal Singh told AFP.
"Wildlife officials are trying to find them. As police we're not experts in dealing with monkeys. We can deal with mad bulls but monkeys are more difficult," he said.
Along with an estimated 35,000 sacred cows and buffaloes that roam free in the capital, marauding monkeys have been longstanding pests.
They routinely scamper through government offices, courts and even police stations and hospitals as well as terrorise neighbourhoods.
Trouble boiled over in late October when the city's deputy mayor, Sawinder Singh Bajwa, 52, fell to his death driving away monkeys from his home.
He was on his balcony reading a newspaper when four monkeys appeared, his family said. As he waved a stick to scare them away, he tumbled over the edge and died in hospital from head injuries.
In the latest incident in Delhi's low-income Shastri Park area, residents reported the monkeys appeared late Saturday and rampaged for hours.
"I was talking to someone at my door at around 11 pm when a monkey appeared," Naseema, who goes by one name, told the Times of India. "As I moved inside, the monkey followed and sank its teeth in my baby's leg."
Six more bites were reported Monday in Shastri Park, while in an upscale neighbourhood in central Delhi, a rogue monkey bounded into the residence of Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi, The Indian Express said.
Animal control officers were deployed to chase the beasts away.
Estimates of Delhi's monkey population range from 10,000 to over 20,000.
In 2001 residential districts petitioned courts to make Delhi "monkey-free" and last May, federal lawmakers demanded protection.
But there has been little visible progress.
"We're trying to catch them but the difficulties are a shortage of monkey catchers. We're not able to take full action at full speed," A.K. Singh, a senior municipal official, said.
Delhi has a 10-million-rupee (253,000 dollar) budget to capture the common rhesus macaques which are handed over to a shelter in a disused mine area on the outskirts.
Neighbouring states have refused to release the macaques into their forests because they say the "urban monkeys" terrorise the local monkeys and swipe food from villages.
Animal control officials often use langurs, which are bigger and fiercer monkeys, to scare away the smaller macaques or drive them into cages.
Efforts to drive out the animals is complicated by the fact that devout Hindus view them as an incarnation of Hanuman, the monkey god who symbolises strength. Killing them is unacceptable.
Delhi's mayor has admitted authorities are fighting a losing battle.
"We've neither the expertise nor the infrastructure," said Mayor Aarti Mehra.
Once caught, "we're under pressure to release ... from animal activists and from people due to religious reasons."
Kartick Satyanarayanan, head of India's Wildlife SOS, said the invasion of natural habitats by mushrooming populations was at the root of the problem.
"Humans are taking all their space."
What's worse? 35,000 sacred cows and buffaloes roaming the streets or 10,000 to 20,000 monkeys?
You know, this headline sounds funny, but those monkeys are terrifying—I am speaking from personal experience!!! :-O
In 1995, I visit India for the first time (my husband is from Bangalore). We went on a weeklong tourist jaunt from his home town up to New Delhi. (Train ride took 36 hours or so).
In Delhi we visited all the local attractions. Many of the tombs of famous Moguls (Muslim rulers who ran India for a long time) are beautiful buildings (including the Taj Mahal—did you know it’s a mausoleum?)—anyway, to reach the actual buildings you have to go through huge ‘gates’ (archways) and cross large plazas.
We visited one such place one day, and my husband left me alone basically in the middle of the plaza while he went to ask some questions of a tour guide a good distance away.
I was fine standing there by myself, admiring the beautiful architecture and gardens, etc. when suddenly, I found myself surrounded LITERALLY by a band of these monkeys scrabbling around me! There were about 25 or 30 of them, and a young boy of about 8 ran over with a bag of monkey food in his hand. He started shouting a me in Hindi (while I stood there frozen—those monkeys have VERY sharp canines!!! Yikes!) while the monkeys were pawing me...some were as high as my hips before they stretched, and I’m 5’6”!! :-O
One of the few times in my life I was scared to death! Fortunately my husband came rushing over and scattered the monkeys and yelled at the kid to get lost (the kid was trying to get money from me for monkey treats) and almost instantly we were alone again on the plaza.
I just wish I’d had the presence of mind at the time to take a picture, but being terrified, it never crossed my mind!!
The sacred cows and buffalos tend to wander around by themselves (generally old animals that Hindus won’t kill but set free that are eventually gathered up by meat eaters who slaughter them for their meat)—the few I saw were very gentle docile animals that people would touch and pray to when they passed on the street—I’d take those over killer monkeys ANY day of the week.
Thanks for answering my question — and the for your great storytelling.
So few monkeys could cause so much harm cause monkeys don’t fight fair. Even as a child I recall watching movies where the monkeys were called a cheatah.
Filthy Minkeys bump.
(A beggar sits in front of a bank playing an accordian. There is a monkey sitting next to him as Inspector Clouseau walks up.) Clouseau: Do you have a lisonse? Beggar: What? Clouseau: City ordinance 147-B prohibits the playing of any musical instrument in a public place for the purpose of commercial enterprize without a proper lisonse. Beggar: I don’t understand. Clouseau: It is against the leu (law) for you to play your musical instrument. Beggar: Leu? Clouseau: What? Beggar: You say, it’s against the leu? Clouseau: Yes. Unless you have a proper license. Beggar: What kind of license? Clouseau: A license that permits the playing of any musical instrument in a public place for the purpose of commercial enterprize. Beggar: Commercial enterprize? Clouseau: Yes. You play that thing and people give you the muhnay. Beggar: People give the monkey the money. Clouseau: It is the same. Beggar: Oh, no. I am a musician and the monkey is a businessman. He doesn’t tell me what to play, and I don’t tel him what to do with his money. (Through the window of the bank, you can see that it is being robbed. One day I came home and I found him sitting in my living room. I let him stay, but he pays for his own room and board. Clouseau: Then the minkey’s (monkey’s) breaking the leu. Beggar: But he doesn’t play any musical instrument. Clouseau: City ordinance 132-R prohibits the begging. Beggar: How do you know so much about city ordinances? Clouseau: What sort of stupid question is that? Are you blind? Beggar: Yes. Clouseau: ...Oh, yes, I see, yes... Well you happen to be talking to a police officer. And since I expect to be transferred back to the detective department at any moment, I will let you
Thanks - it just doesn’t get any better than that bit.
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