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  • From: Carrie McLaren <carrie AT stayfreemagazine.org>
  • To: monkeywire AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [monkeywire] Man-monkey conflict spreads through India
  • Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2004 08:26:06 -0400

State In Monkey's Shadow
Without a containment plan, the man-monkey conflict spreads alarmingly
PRAMILA N. PHATARPHEKAR, CHANDER SUTA DOGRA
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20040927&fname=Monkey+(F)&sid=1

Magazine | September 27, 2004

Purnima Verma always scans the outdoors carefully through her heavily grilled front window before leaving her home in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. She'll step out only if she doesn't see a rhesus monkey. Even then it's only with a heavy stick. The 35-year-old homemaker doesn't want a repeat of what happened in July, when a monkey attack left her with a mangled arm, a scratched face and a ripped ear.

At least Verma survived. Two-month-old Kajal Pandey wasn't so lucky this January. She was asleep at the Pandey home in Delhi's Lakshmi Nagar when a monkey slipped in, bit her and gouged out her eye. When her mother Kanchan swung a bucket at it, the creature smashed Kajal's head on the floor. The hospital declared the infant dead on arrival. The Pandeys soon moved out, terrified that monkeys would attack Kajal's twin, Payal.

Another attack on August 29 claimed 60 victims. These weren't humans; they were rhesus macaques stuffed into sacks and clubbed to death before being dumped in the fields of Basana, Haryana. S.K. Dhar, chief forest conservator, Haryana, says: "This is a highly sensitised village; the motive was clearly communal mischief."

Unpleasant man-monkey faceoffs are becoming a terrifying part of everyday life across India. The worst affected are northern states like Delhi, UP, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, where the worship of Hanuman and the feeding of rhesus macaques (considered his living avatar) is widespread. Humans have actually begun to cage themselves into houses and offices to escape the monkey menace. 'Simian vermin' too are being captured and put into barred shelters.
Jammu and Kashmir (where the late music producer Gulshan Kumar sent fruits by the truckload for the monkeys at Vaishno Devi temple), Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Kerala are also struggling to cope with aggressive monkeys that forage in troops up to 200 strong.

A monkey attack can lead to rabies and death. People in many areas have changed their habits. "I can't feed my daughter on the balcony, I've stopped making pickle, drying papad or clothes on my terrace," says Sunita Verma, a school teacher from north Delhi's Timarpur area.

Iqbal Malik specialises in the study of primates, a class to which both man and monkey belong. She says India's rhesus macaque population has jumped from 2 lakh in 1980 to 5 lakh now. Some 50-60 per cent of these live in urban areas, where abundant food at temples, homes, markets and garbage dumps is leading to a rise in their numbers.

Delhi alone has 5,000 marauding macaques, who've stormed the corridors of power around Parliament, temples, residential areas and hospitals. Institutions like the Air Force Bal Bharati School have employed langurs (larger black-faced monkeys) to scare away macaques. It isn't easy. Some determined macaques climbed all the way to the 17th floor of a high-rise apartment building in Gurgaon outside Delhi. "Seeing mean red faces in the window was terrifying," says Tanuja, a TV producer. Luckily her balcony was enclosed. Her neighbour's wasn't and the simian troop duly raided the refrigerator.

Dinesh Sharma, officer in charge of rabies control, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), says 1,603 people took anti-rabies vaccines after monkey attacks in 2003 at MCD clinics and dispensaries. That's more than a two-fold increase in monkey bites from 671 in 2002. Since this excludes central government hospitals, and private clinics and the richer New Delhi Municipal Corporation area, the figure indicates just a part of the problem.

In the holy city of Vrindavan, residents have caged themselves into grilled and barred houses. "The devout had been feeding monkeys here for centuries," says wildlife biologist Rajat Bhargava, "But simian aggression has reached alarming proportions.Besides demanding food, macaques damage phone, electricity wires." In 1996, he and Malik attempted a translocation of over 600 monkeys from Vrindavan to habitats 50 km away".

But the threat continues, given that there are usually 10,000 visiting pilgrims who feed monkeys or present opportunities by carrying food," he adds.

It's humans who must take the blame. Till a 1978 ban, India was the world's largest rhesus macaque exporter (they were used for biomedical research). A haphazard trapping of 'individuals' from troops led to what Malik calls "chaotic fissioning" where monkeys later formed single units for safety. This resulted in the subgroups requiring more space.

Psychologically, they changed. "Suckling youngsters separated from their mothers became depressed, while the mothers got more aggressive," says Malik. And dwindling forest cover encouraged them to move to towns, where abundant food would help them breed well.
Right now, the tourist haven of Shimla, under siege from 2,000 macaques, is trying to relocate the simians. A public interest petition was filed in the high court asking that the Union environment ministry direct the wildlife department to rid the state of monkeys. The court directed the government to frame a first-of-its-kind plan, following which around 700 macaques were picked up from Shimla and translocated to jungles last week. Yet the results have not been encouraging.

In 2002, when macaques were released in Haryana's Morni forest, they preyed on the eggs of jungle fowl and khaleej pheasants. The same thing happened in Keoladeo National Park in 2003, where they ate the eggs of painted storks and resident birds. Since post-translocation studies have not been carried out, other conflicts might have been missed, adds Bhargava.
In Hanuman-worshipping north India, Tuesdays and Saturdays are bounty days when macaques are fed. But smart as they are, monkeys can't read calendars; for them anyone carrying food on any day is a potential feeder. People resisting their hungry advances are fair game for attack.

Meanwhile, militant political outfits like the Bajrang Dal, who identify themselves with the Hanuman cult, are making a sacred cow out of the monkey. Joining forces with them are sweet, snack and fruit vendors, who profit from the feeding. As a result, translocators get threatened with lines like: "Take away our monkeys and we will release pigs in dargahs."
"These people should care for the monkeys and not create health and living hazards," reacts a frustrated wildlife official.

No one seems to want new monkeys, holy or not, which makes translocation hard. As petitions for monkey translocation pile up, forest officers don't want them, nor zoos, nor small towns and villages. Delhi only has a temporary shelter for 250 monkeys.

There is a dire need for a solution. Whatever form it ultimately takes, as the most intelligent species on earth, Homo sapiens owes it to the rest of the planet to find a humane solution to this primate predicament.






  • [monkeywire] Man-monkey conflict spreads through India, Carrie McLaren, 09/18/2004

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