(IN)Culling suggestion for Delhi monkeys

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http://www.kafila.org/2007/11/14/monkeys-and-other-primates-from-delhi/

Monkeys

and other Primates from

Delhi.<http://www.kafila.org/2007/11/14/monkeys-and-other-primates-from-delhi/>

Published

by Sohail Hashmi <http://www.kafila.org/author/sohail-hashmi/>at November

14, 2007 in Ecologies <http://www.kafila.org/category/ecologies/>.

Tags: Environmental

degradation <http://www.kafila.org/tag/environmental-degradation/>, Homo

Sapiens V/s Monkeys <http://www.kafila.org/tag/homo-sapiens-v%2Fs-monkeys/>,

Multiplying Monkeys <http://www.kafila.org/tag/multiplying-monkeys/>, Rhesus

Monkeys in Delhi <http://www.kafila.org/tag/rhesus-monkeys-in-delhi/>.

 

As children one was occasionally treated to a Bandar ka Tamasha and the

antics of these distant cousins entertained us no end. The monkeys that one

saw enacting the roles of a newly married couple, whose conjugal

relationship deteriorated within 10 minutes to a life of dreary middle class

existence, belonged invariably to the Rhesus (Macaca mulatto) family. We owe

a lot to these distant cousins, including the discovery of the RH factor in

our own blood. This 1940 discovery has probably saved millions of lives and

whether one believes in their being closely related to lord Hanuman or not,

we are indebted to these simians.

 

The joy of watching the Bandar ka Tamasha is now a thing of the past, thanks

to the animal rights activists and a certain Gandhi, no longer part of the

first family of Indian politics. The use of these monkeys for medical

research was also stopped through the active interventions of the same

agencies. As a result of these 'animalitarian concerns' the 'poor

multinational drug cartels' are forced to test their new concoctions on

black, brown and other coloured populations of higher primates living on the

fringes of 'civilization' in the third world. I wonder why the animalists do

not protests against this violation of human rights. After all humans are

also animals, that, however, is another story; we plan to confine ourselves

to monkey business as understood by their more evolved cousins.

 

When, as per the book of creation, God made this world, he created all

manner of beasts and provided food for them through the agency of trees,

grasses, fruits, nuts and seeds, some animals fed on this bounty while

others ate up these lesser animals to develop a fairly organised food chain.

The forests were populated with both kinds of animals and there was

provision for food close at hand, no one worked for a living in those days

and there was no need to travel long distances for work.

 

It has been said that the devil is in the details and the devil found one

that had escaped the attention of the creator. God, while creating Adam, had

not defined a territory for the human ape. The more adventurous among them

soon tired of an existence that presented them with little intellectual

stimulus and began to move down from the trees, before you could say

pithecanthropus erectus, the homo erectus had evolved, the rest, as the wise

ape said, is history.

 

The monkeys and other animals continued to live in the forests that god had

assigned them, but the thinking monkey wanted more of everything so forests

were chopped down for agriculture and more recently for malls. As the

intellectual ape began to encroach on territories that were not his, he

began to shape them to his requirements and that is where this monkey

business began.

 

Before coming in close and constant contact with the human ape, the Macaca

mulatto lived a life that followed a rhythm that is vastly different from

what we observe in the Monkeys that we are so now desperately trying to

remove from our neighbourhoods.

 

According to Thomas P. Gordon (Yerkes Regional Primate Research Centre-

Emory University Atlanta, Georgia ) the female Rhesus monkey is capable of

producing one young per year under good conditions.

(

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Macaca_mulatta.h\

tml

)

Animal Diversity Web University of Michigan Museum of Zology.

 

He goes on to say that Populations that live in areas where the winters are

cold, mate in the fall; those that live where seasonal changes are less

pronounced have less well defined mating seasons. The average length of the

gestation period was observed to be 165 days (variation between 133 to 200

days) it was also observed that the mother feeds her offspring for almost a

year.

 

For more on the Rhesus monkeys see Encyclopaedia Britannica rhesus monkey

(Macaca mulatta,), Science 28 November 1969: Vol. 166. no. 3909, pp. 1176 –

1178, Stephen H. Vessey, John A. Morrison - Molt in Free-Ranging Rhesus

Monkeys, Macaca mulatta , Journal of Mammalogy, Vol. 51, No. 1 (Feb., 1970),

pp. 89-93 and

 

What does the phrase: under good conditions (emphasis mine) imply? My

reading of the phrase is the following: good conditions would mean plenty of

food and water and normal weather- conditions that encourage mating and the

availability of food in plenty. The latter ensures better chances of

survival for both the mother and the offspring. In India the mating season

will be spring and early summer; this would ensure that the little bundles

of joy will arrive in the latter half of monsoons. It has been observed

elsewhere that in conditions of scarcity of food, animals do not reproduce

as often as they do in conditions of plenty.

 

The idea behind quoting the above study is to argue that in conditions of

plenty of food being available through the year, the females will reproduce

more often than they would have otherwise. I think that the unmanageable

numbers of the simians in Delhi is a direct consequence of monkeys being fed

constantly.

 

This wide spread practice of feeding monkeys three square meals a day, that

seems to be gathering momentum with the speed of an advancing tsunami, has

been triggered, without any doubt in my mind, by a combination of born again

ostentatious religiosity and the availability of more disposable wealth in

the hands of the upper middle classes.

 

Monkeys are not the only recipients of this largess, so much sugar is being

fed to the ants in the Sanjay Van opposite Vasant Kunj that I'll not be

surprised if they have already become diabetic. Peacocks and pigeons have

been fed so much bajra and maize that they have stopped foraging for food.

Cows are gorging themselves on plastic bags full of left over rotis to such

an extent that they are dying of plastic stuck in their intestines. One

pregnant cow that was found dead inside the Asola wild life sanctuary had 35

Kg of plastic bags inside her digestive tract. This was discovered when

Jackals had finished their feast with her carcass. The food remained inside

the Plastic bags and the plastic killed her.

 

For the last 200 years or so we have systematically disrupted the ecological

links that sustained forests and those who lived in the forests, including

the tribal populations who did not kill animals for joy. The natural

vegetation of the forests and of the urban areas was rudely disturbed by the

British through the introduction of Mexican mesquite (Prosopis Juliflora)

around a 100 years ago, First in Bengal and the Ghats and later in other

parts including the Arravalis.

 

The tree has spread like a weed wiping out a large bank of indigenous

vegetation and destroying the berries like Khirni, Jamun, Ber, Jangal

Jalebi, Goolar, Peepal, pilkhan and others that sustained both birds and

animals, either directly or through a complex food chain. Human Populations

have encroached on the forest and the Monkeys, Kites and crows have been

forced out to become scavengers.

 

Disturbed by this simian onslaught the municipal authorities, the state

government and the court have tried quick fix solutions that include

catching them and sending them to Madhya Pradesh. Monkey Catchers were

imported from Tamil Nadu, After protests by animal lovers more simian

friendly cages was designed for trapping and transporting the primates.

Monkeys were caught and transported to the Asola reserve forest, The

conservator of forests was ordered to raise the retaining wall to a height

of 10 Meters, in order to keep the monkeys inside.

 

The government, 'sensitive to the religious sentiments' of the populace that

were getting seriously hurt because the law now made monkey feeding an

unlawful activity, offered to collect edible titbits brought by the devout

and to transport them to Asola

 

Understandably, most of these solutions have come unstuck; the government of

M.P. was offered a grand sum of rupees 50 Lakh per annum to arrange food for

the monkeys, after initially accepting the offer the M.P. administration has

refused to continue and wants nothing to do with Delhi Monkeys. The wall

around Asola can be raised only after a heavy expenditure and the

conservator of forests is short of funds. People want to feed the monkeys

themselves and receive their blessings. They certainly do not want the

government to corner all the blessings by merely paying for the transport.

Meanwhile the Monkeys keep jumping out of asola and raiding the neighbouring

slums and villages. We have changed their food habits for good, They do not

eat berries even if they are available and Asola, which is a degraded forest

in any case, has precious little of these.

 

Dr Iqbal Malik, who has spent a life time studying the Rhesus and other

monkeys of Delhi, has explained at great length the care that needs to be

exercised while trapping monkeys. The rappers have to ensure that an entire

group that lives together is trapped at one go, any members that are left

out are not welcomed by other groups and are in fact attacked and shunned.

The strays loose their social moorings and soon turn into vicious rogue

monkeys.

 

The monkeys that go around biting and attacking people do not discriminate

between those that feed and venerate them and those that do not. The death

of a deputy mayor seems to have stirred the MCD into some action and the

blame game between the " Govt of the National Capital Territory of Delhi " and

the MCD has started all over again. More drastic knee jerk solutions are

going to be put forward and buried with as much alacrity with which they

would be thrown up in the first place.

 

The net result of the entire Bandar Bhagao Abhiyan has been to relocate

monkeys from the VIP district to Asola. We have suddenly increased their

numbers around Batra Hospital, in Sangam Vihar, in Tughlaqabad, in

Talimabad, In Kalkaji in Bhati mine area and in Badarpur. There is in fact a

more than 25% increase in case of Monkey Bites in these areas. Monkeys are

rabid and we do not have enough vaccine in the city. No one cares. These

areas like the walled city and the trans Yamuna areas are not top of the

mind recall locations for the rich and famous of the capital and monkey

bites here do not become breaking news on 24X7 purveyors of inane gossip.

 

The time has come, if you ask me, to stop feeding the monkeys, to sterilise

them systematically and to undertake culling. If none of this is possible

let us all barricade ourselves in our houses and pray.