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[Carrie McLaren <carrie AT stayfreemagazine.org>]

The Times of India
October 31, 2001

LANGUR RESCUES PATIENTS FROM MONKEYS

by Radhika D. Srivastava


Until the arrival of Raja, a langur, monkeys living in the Kasturba 
Hospital were a well-fed lot. During the day, they would feed on 
patients' food. At night, they got their energy fix from glucose 
bottles. Monkeys here were known to enter the medical store in the 
basement of the hospital through a ventilator, puncture plastic 
glucose bottles and drink from them.

Armed with the nourishment, it would be time to chase, steal and even 
bite. They scared the living daylights out of doctors, nurses and 
patients.
Quite similar was the problem in a number of other Delhi hospitals. 
Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and the All India Institute of Medical 
Sciences were known to house large simian populations.

The monkey menace vanished after the hospitals hired the services of a langur.

RML Hospitals security in-charge Dr J Ahmad said: Over the past two 
years we have hired a langur twice. It has now been three months 
since the services were dispelled with and we have not seen the 
monkeys come back. But we have our fingers crossed.

A senior doctor in AIIMS said: Monkeys have been around ever since 
the hospital came up. Many people have been attacked. Despite all 
grills and doors, we could not keep them away from the wards.

Then not one but three langurs were hired by the institute and the 
change immediate.

Kasturba Hospital has been worst affected. Essentially a 
mother-and-child hospital, the threat to newborns of being bitten 
always loomed large. Simran Kaur, a nurse, said: We would always 
caution mothers against leaving their babies unattended. If bitten, 
the newborns are given anti-rabies shots--a must in a monkey-bite 
cases despite the serious side-effects.

So with a special sanction from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, 
which runs the hospital, grills were made and special meshes erected. 
But nothing worked. Till Saadiq Hussain entered the scene with his 
pet Raja.

Since the langur was put on guard in July, the monkeys have vanished. 
Once a balloon-seller, always on the brink of poverty, Hussain is now 
assured of a fixed salary of Rs 5,000 a month, thanks to his pet.

Hospital deputy medical superintendent Dr P R Dhakoria said: Although 
we now have an added expenditure, we feel the money is well spent. We 
seemed to have got rid of the monkey menace.