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Monkey menace on Bandra skywalk
8 Nov 2008, 0456 hrs IST, Yogesh Naik, TNN
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mumbai/Monkey_menace_on_Bandra_skywalk/articleshow/3687828.cms


MUMBAI: Two monkeys who have made the Bandra skywalk their home have
been causing havoc and indulging in inappropriate behaviour. Not only
have they nipped at pedestrians and snatched their bags, they have
even been seen mating on the skywalk.

In the last month, at least 30 people have been bitten, one of them a
security guard, J R Dubey, who has been posted there by the Mumbai
Metropolitan Region Development Authority. The MMRDA has constructed
the zigzagging yellow 1.3 km walkway, which became operational two
months ago.

Not a single security official can explain where the simians have
leapt from. One of them has a iron ring around its neck. Dubey said,
"I have seen at least five people being attacked. I've been bitten
twice. It's terrifying to work here. In the night, the monkeys sleep
behind the hoardings on the Western Express highway, and at other
times, when they tired of the skywalk, they hide in the rain trees
near Bandra station."

Poonam Shah, 22, said she and her friends were happily strolling down
the skywalk when a monkey bit her and snatched a cellphone from her
friend's hand. "I had to take five injections to avoid rabies. It's
really scary to walk here, but I do not have any other option," she
said.

While this correspondent was trying to get a picture of the monkeys,
one of them obliged by snatching at the bag of an elderly woman, only
to drop it after discovering that it contained fish.

TOI phoned MMRDA bosses Ratnakar Gaikwad, Milind Mhaiskar and Ashwini
Bhide and told them about the untoward activity on their otherwise
pedestrian-friendly bridge. Spokesperson Dilip Kawathkar said he would
ask the security officers to do the needful. Range forest officer
Rajendra Magdum, whose job profile includes tackling stray monkeys,
said, "I will deploy two men on Saturday to trap them."

MMRDA guards plan to light firecrackers to scare the duo away, but
this will not be a permanent solution. Environmentalist Debi Goenka
said the MMRDA should ask the forest department to help capture and
translocate them in a forest outside Mumbai. Sanctuary Magazine editor
Bittu Sehgal said, "They should be captured. In all probability, they
are hungry and must have escaped from a madariwalla."

yogesh.naik AT timesgroup.com