THE JUNGLE REPORT

Planet of the apes? India is the starting point.

As if Delhi did not have enough problems with its power cuts, water shortages and regular strikes, the Indian capital faces a crisis over its increasingly unruly monkeys.

Monkey population has now become such a problem, it has reached the high court.

“If you can’t control the monkeys, what can you do?” the Delhi High Court acerbically asked representatives of the various municipal authorities in a ruling responding to a petition filed by the harassed residents of a posh residential neighbourhood. The court asked authorities to explain “what measures were being formulated to find a permanent solution to the monkey menace in the capital.”

Solution to the problem - ship them to other states:

For the past two years the city’s authorities have been catching the ubiquitous rhesus macaques and relocating them to other states.

However, the state of Madhya Pradesh refused to accept a shipment of 300 Delhi monkeys this week, arguing that they would destroy forests, terrorise villages and spread disease. Last month Himachal Pradesh also turned down monkey shipments and four other states may follow suit.

Delhi authorities are now at a loss as to how to deal with the city’s ever-expanding monkey population, which has reached about 5,000.

More on the story:

Earlier this year the country’s Supreme Court ordered wildlife authorities to transport some 300 macaques from New Delhi to the dense jungles of Madhya Pradesh state. The government of that state was to receive $54,000 (U.S.) from the federal government to cover the cost of reintroducing the monkeys to the wild, Other efforts by animal welfare agencies have been defeated, in part, by Hindus who believe that monkeys are manifestations of the monkey god Hanuman. The animals are often fed bananas and peanuts, which encourages them to frequent public places.

Previously, the authorities have tried using the monkey’s cousins, the langur monkey to drive out the chimps. Here is what happened:

But the langurs do drive the monkey menace away, don’t they? Fumes environmental activist Dr Iqbal Malik of Vatavaran. “Using langurs to drive away monkeys has made the Indian authorities a laughingstock in the international wildlife activist community.”

The problem in Delhi, Dr Malik said, has proliferated horizontally as well. Until a few years ago, groups of monkeys would be spotted in areas closer to the Ridge like Rajendra Nagar, Vasant Kunj and the likes. “But now, for instance, Patparjanj in east Delhi faces this unique problem. While the shrinking green cover in Delhi drives monkey away from the Ridge, langurs drive them to parts of the city where they never ventured before,” Dr Malik said.

References:

Apes of Wrath

Would New Delhi prefer Canada geese?

Monkeys on the attack in India