Report: Lawmakers call for end to monkey menace in Indian capital

Yahoo! News ^ | 05/16/07

[TigerLikesRooster]

Report: Lawmakers call for end to monkey menace in Indian capital

By AP

Wednesday May 16, 06:08 PM

Several lawmakers criticized the Indian government in Parliament on Wednesday for failing to control the growing number of marauding monkeys in the country's capital, a news report said.

Battalions of simians have been damaging trees, uprooting plants, snatching food from children and terrifying passers-by, the Press Trust of India news agency quoted K. Malaisamy of the opposition All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam as saying.

"In the name of protection of monkeys, we cannot afford to be silent spectators to this perennial problem," Malaisamy said in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament, according to PTI.

As forest cover around New Delhi has declined, the city has struggled with a growing monkey population. Government buildings, temples and many residential neighborhoods are overrun by hundreds of rhesus macaques.

On Wednesday, Ramdeo Bhandary, another lawmaker, joined Malaisamy in asking the Environment and Forest Ministry to do something quickly to end the menace.

There was no immediate response from the government.

Last year, the Delhi High Court reprimanded authorities in the Indian capital for failing to stop monkeys from terrifying residents and asked them to find a permanent solution to the monkey menace.

Part of the problem is that devout Hindus believe monkeys are manifestations of the monkey god Hanuman and feed them with bananas and peanuts, which encourages them to frequent public places.

Over the years, city authorities have used monkey catchers who use langurs _ a larger and fiercer kind of monkey _ to scare or catch the macaques, but the problem persists.

The Supreme Court has ordered wildlife authorities to transport some 300 macaques from New Delhi to the dense jungles of Madhya Pradesh state.

[tickmeister]

Sounds like the same problem they’ve got in Baltimore.

[Red_Devil 232]

The surrender monkeys should take notice! Be afraid!

[RansomOttawa]

Heh heh heh! Monkeys.

[Red Badger]

Here we come........

[atomicpossum]

Fine, you don't have to like their music, but they're hardly a 'menace!'

[Dumpster Baby]

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

VR calls for an end to the monkey menace in the U.S. Senate.

[scan59]

Over the years, city authorities have used monkey catchers who use langurs _ a larger and fiercer kind of monkey _ to scare or catch the macaques, but the problem persists.

Then they'll need to import tigers to get rid of the langurs.....

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Then they'll need to import tigers to get rid of the langurs.....

Back from when The Simpsons was still good:

Skinner: Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend.

Lisa: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?

Skinner: No problem. We simply release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.

Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse?

Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.

Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas!

Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.

[Xenalyte]

Those BASTIDS. I knew the little one was trouble. I don’t care what Mom said about him being a teen idol.

[Red Badger]

Don’t be talkin’ trash ‘bout my Monkees, now...........

[Old North State]

The Indians should just ship them over to the US, once they get here they will be granted amnesty and get to stay.