Indian school for rogue monkeys

Monkeys have become a major nuisance throughout India

Wildlife officials in India plan to build a special school to improve the behaviour of delinquent monkeys. They say the aim is to target monkeys that pose a serious threat to people in the state of Punjab.

Officials say monkeys are a growing menace in Punjab as the animals move into towns and cities looking for food.

The state government has asked India's Central Zoo Authority for funds to build the country's first monkey rescue and rehabilitation centre. Punjab has more than 65,000 wild monkeys. As more and more forests disappear, they are increasingly encroaching into human settlements, say experts.

Humans attacked

Many of the animals now live in towns and villages and it is not uncommon for them to attack humans as they forage for food.

The problem of rogue monkeys is particularly severe in towns close to India's north-western border with Pakistan. Officials accuse them of a variety of bad behaviour from terrorising children, snatching food from people and destroying property. The rehab centre will be located on the site of a defunct 'monkey jail'.

Macaque monkeys routinely destroy TV antennae, tear down clothes-lines and damage parked scooters and motorcycles.

"Besides people landing in hospitals after encounters with monkeys, the animals also often get hurt when house owners try to chase them away or keep them out by using live electric wires and other means," chief wildlife warden RK Luna told the BBC.

The proposed new monkey school will take in the "worst offenders" and put them through a crash course in good manners.

"We have proposed a composite facility where scientific methods will be employed to change and alter the social habits of the monkeys," Mr Luna said.

Wildlife officials hope to reduce aggression and train the monkeys to be more like the wild animals they originally were.

Temporary home

It is hoped that the school will eventually become a temporary home for up to 100 rogue monkeys.

It will begin with 15-20 animals complete with a quarantine area and a veterinary hospital.

The monkey rehabilitation centre is planned as an extension to a mini zoo near the city of Patiala, in a thickly forested area that was once the royal hunting grounds of the princely state of Patiala.

It replaces an earlier - now defunct - holding facility or "jail" for rogue monkeys also located at the site several years ago. Mr Luna said work on the school would begin as soon as possible.

click to link to original article

#####################################################################

The sacred cow, one of the enduring symbols of the Indian capital Delhi, is gradually being moved from the streets.

A cow being taken off a Delhi street

The authorities have decided there are too many of them and they are not just a nuisance but also a menace.

So for the 36,000 cows wandering around Delhi it is time to go.

And it is not just cows - Delhi's monkeys are also finding that life is getting tougher.

The Delhi authorities on Tuesday began a drive to round up stray cattle.

This is hot and dangerous work.

Under the baking Indian sun I watch eight men struggling with ropes and poles to get one of the stray bovines into the back of a truck.

The cow - a huge, angry animal - does not like the idea and she has got a powerful kick and long sharp horns.

Traffic hazard

A vet employed with the city council, Dr SK Yadav, says it has been a successful morning. Twenty-five cows have been secured and removed from Delhi's streets. "Cows are a serious problem. They wander all over the roads, causing serious traffic jams and they are responsible for some serious accidents," says Dr Yadav.

He is right.

Cows hold up traffic regularly on Delhi roads

On a Delhi market road, some eight cows have gathered, largely because there is a rubbish dump nearby. They are feeding on the rubbish and wandering to and fro across the road, blocking all traffic.

Clearly, they are a law unto themselves. The problem has got worse recently as hundreds of illegal dairies have sprung up in Delhi. Their owners deliberately let them loose so that the animals fend for themselves.

But to many of the thousands of tourists who come to Delhi, cows wandering aimlessly around the city are part of its unique charm. "The fact that animals are living with people on the streets of Delhi is beautiful. There are cows and dogs, and nobody's shouting at them, nobody's chasing them," one tourist told me.

"It's part of the culture you know. As a traveller you're going to other countries to explore other cultures, so I like it." But this is a 'culture' that the Delhi civic authorities are no longer happy to promote.

What do they do with the cows after lifting them off the streets? Many of the animals are old - no longer capable of giving milk. But they are sacred beasts in Hindu religion and no harm must come to them.

So the cows are being taken to compounds on the outskirts of the city. Here they adjust to a diet of hay rather their usual rubbish from the streets of Delhi. It is estimated that each cow in Delhi has an average about 300 plastic bags in its stomach.

Simian menace

But cows are not the only animals that have attracted the attention of the authorities. They are also trying to get rid of thousands of monkeys which clamber all over the buildings of the ancient city.

The monkeys, another sacred Hindu creature, usually hang around tourist areas. Monkeys loitering on the roads also pose a problem.

They are usually fed bananas by the tourists and when not supplied with food they steal it.

The monkeys are considered a pest. The Government and large companies pay out large sums of money to keep them off their buildings. Here it takes a thief to catch a thief.

Large black-faced Langur monkeys in the hands of experienced trainers like Vijay Kumar are used to scare off their simian cousins. "There were lots of monkeys here, they used to attack people and damage the parked cars. People were terrified of them," said Mr Kumar.

"So the company called me in. Now the monkeys have all been scared off by my langur." The problem with both the cows and the monkeys is what to do with them.

No state in India wants to take the captured animals off Delhi's hands. So they are being held in detention while their future is determined.

By Adam Mynott

BBC South Asia correspondent

click to link to original