As someone said in a lighter vein that elections have become a near monkey business (although its outcome affects us all!!!), and generate a strange frenzy. While the US is in the grip of frenzy generated by presidential election primaries and results, the people in North India suffer from a frenzy caused by real monkeys!!!
“In recent months, the deputy mayor of New Delhi was killed when he fell from his balcony during an attack by wild monkeys, and 25 others were injured when a monkey went on a rampage in the city,” reports Gavin Rabinowitz, Associated Press Writer.
I have seen with my own eyes the Prime Minister’s, and other ministers’ and officials’, office having protective wire screens to keep the monkeys out. The simians have in the past raided the interiors of the civil secretariat and trashed even important officials files. The security guards postd to keep the mlitants/terrorists at bay find themselves helpless in the face of monkey attacks.
Many homes in North Indian towns now have protective wiremesh around the entire house to keep the monkeys away. The cities, towns and farms are infested with rhesus macaque monkeys, who have been driven to these places after losing their natural forest habitat.
In my mountainous home state of Himachal Pradesh, the first assurance the newly-elected Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal gave was that his administration would fight thousands of monkeys on a “war footing”. Monkeys have been turning farms into wastelands and attacking people, according to a statement from his office.
” ‘Affected districts would be identified and local youth involved in the process, who would be provided training in capturing and sterilization by the experts,’ the statement quoted Dhumal as saying, adding that they would use ‘laser sterilization’. Mr Dhumal’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recently won the regional election in the north-India state of Himachal Pradesh.
“The capacity of zoos in the area would be expanded to accommodate captured monkeys, and camps may be set up for them in order to protect crops and other farmland from being encroached upon, the statement said.”
India’s leading conservationist, Iqbal Malik says: “Of the 15 species of non-human primates present in India, only 3 are commensal, the Rhesus (M. mullatta), Bonnet (M. radiata), and the Common langur (Seminopithecus entellus). Of these, only the Rhesus macaque is the most aggressive, while Bonnets and langurs are comparatively less aggressive. Thanks to its wide distribution in North India, the Rhesus macaque is the reason for a majority of the attacks that have been reported from people living in the urban centres.
“People from urban areas are more likely to be bitten than those living in rural areas, largely due to fact that they are ignorant of primate behaviour, and states like Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh are the worst affected, reporting the maximum number of cases. The reasons for this are many, namely: (1) Extensive urbanization (2) Increased encroachment of forests (3) Haphazard trapping of forest monkeys for biomedical research leading to chaotic fissioning and the related dispersal of monkeys to nearby human habitations (4) Decrease in the number of forest trees, that provide natural food to monkeys (5) Decreased availability of water in the monkey’s natural habitat (I have observed monkeys moving between areas in search of water especially during the summer months) (6) Decreased human tolerance to other life forms in the same enironment (7) Increase in the population of Rhesus monkeys…”
To read her full article “Monkey Menace—Who is Responsible?” please click here…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.