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[carrie mclaren <brooklynite282 AT gmail.com>]

Indian school for rogue monkeys
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8168199.stm
2009/07/24

Wildlife officials in India plan to build a special school to improve the
behaviour of delinquent monkeys.

They say the aim is to target monkeys that pose a serious threat to people
in the state of Punjab.

Officials say monkeys are a growing menace in Punjab as the animals move
into towns and cities looking for food.

The state government has asked India's Central Zoo Authority for funds to
build the country's first monkey rescue and rehabilitation centre.

Punjab has more than 65,000 wild monkeys.

As more and more forests disappear, they are increasingly encroaching into
human settlements, say experts.

Humans attacked

Many of the animals now live in towns and villages and it is not uncommon
for them to attack humans as they forage for food.

The problem of rogue monkeys is particularly severe in towns close to
India's north-western border with Pakistan.

Officials accuse them of a variety of bad behaviour from terrorising
children, snatching food from people and destroying property.

Macaque monkeys routinely destroy TV antennae, tear down clothes-lines and
damage parked scooters and motorcycles.

"Besides people landing in hospitals after encounters with monkeys, the
animals also often get hurt when house owners try to chase them away or keep
them out by using live electric wires and other means," chief wildlife
warden RK Luna told the BBC.

The proposed new monkey school will take in the "worst offenders" and put
them through a crash course in good manners.

"We have proposed a composite facility where scientific methods will be
employed to change and alter the social habits of the monkeys," Mr Luna
said.

Wildlife officials hope to reduce aggression and train the monkeys to be
more like the wild animals they originally were.

Temporary home

It is hoped that the school will eventually become a temporary home for up
to 100 rogue monkeys.

It will begin with 15-20 animals complete with a quarantine area and a
veterinary hospital.

The monkey rehabilitation centre is planned as an extension to a mini zoo
near the city of Patiala, in a thickly forested area that was once the royal
hunting grounds of the princely state of Patiala.

It replaces an earlier - now defunct - holding facility or "jail" for rogue
monkeys also located at the site several years ago.

Mr Luna said work on the school would begin as soon as possible.

-- 
Carrie McLaren, Professional
http://us.macmillan.com/adnauseam
http://www.adult-ed.net