Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

monkeywire - [monkeywire] 300 children bitten by 'blood sucking' monkeys at famous Indian temple

monkeywire AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Josh Greenman <joshg1973 AT yahoo.com>
  • To: monkeywire AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [monkeywire] 300 children bitten by 'blood sucking' monkeys at famous Indian temple
  • Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004 06:48:56 -0800 (PST)

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/041102/ap/d863k83o0.html

Tuesday, November 2

300 children bitten by 'blood sucking' monkeys at famous Indian temple

Monkeys lurking at an ancient Hindu temple in India's northeast have attacked
up to 300
children over three weeks, temple officials said Tuesday.

"They hide in trees and swoop on unsuspecting children loitering about in the
temple
premises or walking by, clawing them and even sucking a bit of blood," Bani
Kumar Sharma,
a priest at the Kamakhya temple in Assam state, told The Associated Press.
The temple,
one of the most famous in India, is located in Gauhati, Assam's capital.

"I was returning home from school when a monkey suddenly pounced on me,
scratched my head
and hand and pushed me to the ground," said Jolly Sharma, a 6-year-old girl.

At least 2,000 rhesus monkeys roam in and around the temple, but none had
shown
aggressive behavior in the past, the priest said.

Monkeys are often found in tens of thousands of temples across India. They
are seen as a
symbol of Hanuman, the mythical monkey god, and devotees visiting temples
often feed
them. While occasional attacks by monkeys are not uncommon at temples, the
sudden surge
in attacks at the Gauhati temple has experts perplexed.

Some say the Gauhati monkeys may be turning violent because of shrinking
living spaces,
or because animals once kept as pets might not have been able to adjust to
new lives
around the temple.

"The loss of habitat due to increased human settlement in the hills around
the temple and
the release of monkeys kept confined at home ... could be among the reasons
for some of
the monkeys behaving in a weird manner," said Narayan Mahanta, a wildlife
official in
Gauhati.

Three monkeys were randomly tranquilized by wildlife officials over the
weekend and have
been taken to the Gauhati Zoo where they will be examined in search of clues
to explain
the changing behavior, Mahanta said.





  • [monkeywire] 300 children bitten by 'blood sucking' monkeys at famous Indian temple, Josh Greenman, 11/02/2004

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page