In land of the Monkey God, a primate menaces

Posted 11 19 2007 10:04PM

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - First it was the death of Delhi'sdeputy mayor, who fell after a fight with monkeys on thebalcony of his home last month.

Then, 25 residents were bitten, scratched and mauled by alone monkey which went on the rampage in the capital lastweekend.

The monkey reportedly tried to snatch several infantsbefore being beaten back by residents armed with sticks andmetal bars.

"Primal Invasion" read the headline in the Hindustan Times.

Authorities are struggling to contain primates that arestubbornly resisting efforts to portray New Delhi as a modern,clean and globalised capital.

The city of 14 million people is growing quickly andexperts say monkeys are increasingly being forced out offorests to lead urban lives, putting them on a collision coursewith humans.

It is a pattern seen across India as the economy booms.Elephants, leopards and tigers are also coming face to facewith man as cities sprawl into their former habitats.

Monkeys are a regular sight in New Delhi. They can be seenin groups climbing outside government ministries. Troupeslounge on pavements, oblivious to the chaotic traffic aroundthem.

But culling monkeys has never been an option as many Hindusworship the monkey god Hanuman, seen as a symbol of strength,perseverance and devotion. And when Delhi tried to shift themout of the city, neighbouring states complained.

Faced with what many saw as a monkey plague on homes,offices and ministries, this year city authorities started tocapture and send them to a sanctuary on Delhi's outskirts.

Delhi government officials say they have caught andrelocated around 1,900 monkeys. While there is no census ofmonkey numbers, officials say thousands still live on thecity's streets.

UNPRECEDENTED ATTACK

But a spate of high-profile monkey attacks has madeheadlines and increased public pressure for the government toact quicker.

"The latest attack was unprecedented," said J.K. Dadoo,environment and forest secretary in the Delhi government."Monkeys normally operate in groups."

Experts say there is a growing pattern of lone attacks thatmay highlight the random way authorities are trying to reducethe monkey population in the city.

"Incidents of lone monkey attacks were almost unknown untilrecently," said Sonya Ghose, founder of Citizens for theWelfare and Protection of Animals and a member of anenforcement panel overseeing the monkey relocation campaign.

"I fear that monkeys are being trapped in a haphazardmanner. Monkey catchers are breaking up troupes of monkeyfamilies, leaving some monkeys alone without their families."

"Then they have nothing to lose and turn aggressive."

Last year, the Delhi Metro train service hired a largerlangur monkey to frighten off smaller creatures after a monkeyboarded a train and scared passengers by scowling at them forthree stops.

Another langur is on the government payroll to scare offmonkeys from Delhi's top federal government offices.

This year, a monkey sneaked into New Delhi's internationalairport, forcing the partial closure of the lounge for morethan an hour as it scampered through the internationaldepartures area.

Dadoo said the problem was that some people fed monkeys onTuesdays and Saturdays, seen as auspicious days for theanimals.

"That is when we have most cases of monkey attacks, whenpeople try to feed them," he said.

Ghose said she suspected monkey catchers -- often villagersfrom outside Delhi who are paid 450 rupees ($11.5) a monkey --sometimes snatched monkeys in nearby forests and claimed theywere caught in the city.

The Delhi residents terrorised at the weekend said themonkey attack was a terrifying experience.

"I thought it was a man at first," Manohar, one of theresidents, was quoted as saying in the Times of India.

"It got hold of my son's leg and was carrying him away butI managed to snatch him back."

(Additional reporting by Onkar Pandey; editing by Y.P.Rajesh)