quite often one reads in the newspapers about the havoc that monkeys cause.mumbai has witnessed about 15 monkey attacks in the last three months.though generally they attack in groups,in these cases this monkey is a serial-attacker.10 children and 6 women were bitten between dadar and mulund.monkeys are suspected to be passing through some behavioural changes.with depletion of fruitbearing trees,monkeys seem to be leaving their groups and venturing it all alone in search of food.
when i lived in goa for about three years, the fruit-bearing trees and vegetable plants were constantly raided by the food-seeking monkeys.there were atleast forty to fifty of them who would reach my garden after i left for work and leave before i returned home.as i was living alone,they had a field day.their articles of attraction were the bananas, mangoes,guavas and chikkoos.a colleague of mine tried to shoot one of these monkeys who was regularly invading his bungalow much to the consternation of his family.the reaction from the group of monkeys was so vigorous that he was at his wits' end in dealing with the problem .he left town for a while and the problem subsided.
monkeys are intelligent beings and one cannot mess around with them. my policy was to keep them at a distance. neither would i encourage them nor would i antagonise them. that policy paid.they didn't bother me too much.but the administrators of our colony decided to get rid of this menace once and for all.they brought an expert from rajasthan who promised 100% success. the day he arrived,all the monkeys disappeared.he waited for one full week.they did not return.not even one of them.he left in desperation and after disappointing all the residents.a few days after he left they surfaced and were up to their usual pranks.
a group of monkeys has recently been harassing women in kenya. also,it is reported that they are destroying crops and causing a food crisis in the village of nachu. the local mp has urged the wildlife service to help contain their aggressive behaviour. when he told parliament that monkeys were harassing women he caused some laughter.
back home in himachal pradesh, farmers have taken to guns to fight the monkey menace.they are virtually shot at sight.the farmers of nauradhar tehsil of sirmour district never wanted to kill the monkeys.but seeing the apathy of the officials,they decided to go for the kill without obtaining prior permission.they also went on a state-wide agitation demanding the lifting on the ban on export of simians.the ban was imposed in 1978.the population of monkeys has risen from 60,000 in 1980 to 3,17,000 now.annual loss attributable to the monkeys is rs 150 crores.
kim dang hoon,a south korean tourist, filed a complaint last month in a police station in varanasi for the recovery of his reading glasses. the tourist claimed that it was stolen by a monkey.the police said that the only evidence they could find was a broken glass in the balcony.it was impossible to initiate any action against the monkey,they said.however kim has been pursuing his complaint so that he could make an insurance claim.
new delhi suffers from a serious monkey menace.they seem to have become a serious 'security threat'.last year the ministry of defence found some of its top secret documents scattered all over the place one morning. a cabinet minister could not enter his house for many months because the monkeys would not let anybody enter the house. in the presidential palace,a dark faced langur monkey was used to scare away the rhesus monkeys!
pragati maidan,new delhi was the venue for a fashion week early this month.this was the 10th edition of the fashion week.participating designers came with collections looking cool.tarun tahiliani,well-known fashion designer indulged in some theatrics.he brought monkeys(humans in disguise) to the runway.he kickstarted his show with the national anthem.
in india monkeys are worshipped as well as ridiculed.we have a monkey god in lord hanuman.at the same time they are looked upon as objects of fun.monkeys by nature are prone to antics.they jump from branch to branch with lightning speed.when young, our parents often admonished us saying "don't behave like a monkey".when we sit down to concentrate on some work and we are easily distracted it is proof that our mind indeed is like a monkey.
4 comments:
When we lived in Bangalore we had a family of monkeys that just loved to thieve! I can't tell you how many things they stole from our house. We got the feeling they were trained to do that...because they usually picked "shiny" objects like time pieces, watches,loose change, steel tumblers etc. (fortunately we didn't leave any jewellery lying around)
hello lr
they love to see the reflection of their faces.hence they pick shiny objects.they even pick up a comb and comb their hair with one of these shiny objects.it is real fun watching them do their 'monkey business'.
lol, I should have guessed that they would enjoy looking at their reflections, after all they are so much like us, or are we like them? :)
hello lr
the first picture is that of a monkey looking at his vanity mirror!they love to watch themselves,don't they? if you are a believer in the darwinian theory of evolution,we have come much after them.we are,therefore,guilty of aping them!
monkeys' brains are much smaller than ours.in some recent experiments they have been successfully taught to do some sums and choose between options.they can be gainfully utilised(monkeypower)rather than use them only for picking coconuts e.g. in indonesia and malaysia.
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