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War against monkeys in Lucknow, India, after boy dies
http://www.sindhtoday.net/south-asia/33917.htm

Nov 5th, 2008 | By Sindh Today

Lucknow, Nov 6 (IANS) With an estimated 3,000 monkeys at large in
certain residential areas of the Uttar Pradesh capital, local
authorities are chasing the animals on a war footing, particularly
after a child lost his life to a marauding simian pack.

The Mayawati government realised the need for more concerted action
only after a three-year-old boy fell off his terrace while desperately
attempting to save himself from being mauled by a pack of monkeys last
Saturday. State Forest Minister Fateh Bahadur Singh promptly got his
officials into action.

After chasing monkeys for nearly 48 hours, they had their first
success Tuesday afternoon when they trapped two monkeys.

'We have managed to trap two monkeys today and hope to get more over
the next few days,' Lucknow's divisional forest conservator C.P. Goel
told IANS.

Asked why his team of a dozen professional monkey catchers were unable
to achieve more success, Goel pleaded: 'Please don't go by just
numbers as monkey catching involves a strategy whereby we target the
leader of each pack; once you have got the leader the rest of the pack
disperses or runs for safety.'

According to him, 'the trapped animals will be let loose in some
nearby forest from where they would not be able to return to urban
habitation.'

Goel admitted that the menace had acquired alarming proportions and
needed to be tackled on a war footing. 'So far the task of monkey
catching was entrusted to the municipal corporation, but now that the
menace had grown manifold, the administration has decided to hand over
the responsibility to the forest and wildlife department.'

Meanwhile, Islamuddin, father of the three-year-old Mohammad Arbaz who
died on account of the monkeys, has appealed to the district
authorities 'to save lives of citizens from unbridled infiltration by
monkeys into several residential localities'. His six-year-old
daughter is still in hospital, though she managed to wriggle out of
the clutches of the monkeys on the same day her brother lost his life.

Islamuddin told IANS: 'My children were playing on the terrace of our
house in the old city when they were surrounded by a pack of monkeys.
The children's screams drew other members of the family as well as
some neighbours to their help. While my daughter managed to run down
the steps even as she was bitten and bruised by the monkeys, a
terrorized three-year-old Arbaz got cornered by the attack and fell
off the terrace and succumbed to his injuries.'

Reports said that the monkey menace had been growing in Lucknow for
quite some time, but no concrete action was taken by the authorities
to contain it. All that the municipal authorities did was to ask their
only listed monkey catcher Harbans Singh to trap the animals.

Singh on his part claims: 'Earlier I have trapped as many as about 500
monkeys, but my bill for more than 100 monkeys was pending for more
than two years. So how do you expect me to do anything?'

Now, with the forest department having taken command of the situation,
an in-house team of professionals was detailed to bring an end to the
plight of the harried citizens.