The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Carrie McLaren <carrie AT stayfreemagazine.org>]

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.