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[carrie mclaren <brooklynite282 AT gmail.com>]

Guests to city get monkey scare
TNN 16 December 2009, 10:42pm IST

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kanpur/Guests-to-city-get-monkey-scare/articleshow/5345084.cms

KANPUR: City is facing the threat of a different kind. Hotel
and guest house owners and local shop-keepers are waging a constant battle
against

Around six persons have been bitten by monkeys recently and victims are
mostly children and those putting up at various hotels and guest houses
located particularly on the Mall Road.

Monti, a hotelier on Mall Road says: "Neither we nor any agency of district
administration-level have any method to curb the monkey menace."

A monkey attacked a customer at a hotel situated on Mall Road on Wednesday
morning. The monkey scratched the back of the person, informs Navin who
works at the hotel. A few days ago, a herd of simians had bitten a five-year
old child Dinesh, who was sleeping next to his parents in the same area. "We
had placed a cage to capture him, but the monkey did not bite the bait. The
daring simian walked up to the cage and then walked away," said Prashant of
the same area. Narendra, a room-boy at a hotel of the same area was bitten
by a monkey while he was sleeping.

"Monkeys are also in a habit of taking bath in the water tanks, " rued the
manager of a guest house in Civil Lines area. "They also take out eatables
from the refrigerator and spread it all over the place, thus causing a lot
of inconvenience," said Gagan Singh, a resident of Canal Road, adjacent to
Mall Road.

An inmate of girl's hostel, Kamini Gupta, said: "These animals sit here from
morning till evening and we are unable to move out of our rooms." Incidents
of monkeys snatching away food items from people strolling in parks have
also been reported.

Talking to TOI, Kanpur Nagar Nigam authorities claimed the department had
decided to bring in experts from Mathura to scare away the monkeys. "We are
in the process of hiring monkey-catching squad from Mathura," said Anurag
Singh, a veterinary officer of KNN.

Meanwhile, forest officials are yet to launch fresh drive against monkeys.
District forest officer BR Ahirwar while talking to TOI said he had sent a
fresh proposal to the government and asked for specialists to capture the
monkeys. "At present, drive against simians is being undertaken by a task
force comprising more than 12 persons in the city," Ahirwar added.