Monkey business in Taj Nagar
Monkey menace is on the rise in Agra, and despite many complaints from residents, the Agra Municipal corporation has not done enough to address the issue. While civilians wait, the authorities watch.
They are the unwanted and unwelcome guests in the city. From destroying pants, tearing clothes hanging on the terrace, to scaring people walking on the road, they harass people. They bite if they are countered or chased away with sticks or rods. Every housing colony in Agra sees 50–100 monkeys visit through the day.
“A monkey once bit me on my arm. I was not doing anything to them and was silently leaving the house after massaging the baby,” said Munni, 43 years old, who travels a fair distance every day to massage a toddler. “There were 5–6 monkeys gathered around me, and one of them bit me. I am scared to come here again now, but what other option do I have? Can’t leave my only source of income in fear of monkeys now, can I?”
Agra, with a population of 22,62,000 citizens, has more than six lakh monkeys in and around the city and their numbers have grown rapidly in recent years. The simians have become increasingly wild and aggressive, creating dangerous living conditions for Agra’s residents. The city’s municipal corporation and other local authorities have been tardy in taking steps to counter the monkey menace. This has increased the problem for citizens.
“Due to hunger and sometimes annoyance or fear of humans, monkeys become very hostile and bite,” said 23-year-old Preeti Gupta, who lives in the Dayalbagh region of Agra.The monkey menace is not entirely new but has become massive in Agra in recent years. “I remember this problem has always been there in the city. Even when I was a baby, monkeys used to come in bunches in my colony and snatch food, and they have destroyed my garden countless times,” said Gupta.
She believes that the population of monkeys has increased in recent years and this has corresponded with the number of cases of deadly attacks — even death — caused by the monkey menace. “It’s so frustrating sometimes that even though I wish to go for a walk, I can’t because there is an army of monkeys waiting outside my home, ready to attack any moment.”
Monkeys not only disrupt people’s daily routines or cause losses, but have been responsible for deaths too. Several deaths have been reported due to monkey attacks, though figures are unavailable. In November 2018, monkeys brutally snatched a 12-day-old infant from its mother’s arms and killed it. This incident happened on the outskirts of Agra and caused havoc not only in the infant’s family, but in the entire city (source:bbc.com). Last year, when the world was fighting Covid-19, Agra had more victims of the monkey menace. Two men lost their lives when they were standing in a building under repair but had been taken over by an army of monkeys. They were rampaging through the entire building, and pounced upon the two men who were owner and labourer of the building. The attack ultimately led to their death, recorded in weather.com.
“There have been many cases of monkey attacks in touristy places, especially Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, which local authorities are also aware of. So, as a tour guide when we are sightseeing with a group of tourists we advise them beforehand to not go anywhere near the monkeys,” said Kamal Nath, 47, a freelance tour guide. “Tourists have been severely injured in the past, especially if they are traveling individually then the need for them to be more alert increases because in such a case there’s no one to guide them about how violent these monkeys could be.”
A measure taken against the growing monkey menace was in 2016 as a collaboration between Wildlife SOS and Agra district administration. Sterilization drives were initiated as a way to control the simians. The area around S.N. Medical college was chosen where 55 monkeys were captured, vaccinated and sterilized. Due to a number of reasons, the project did not expand to cover the rest of Agra.
“Last year, during the pandemic, there were several attempts made by Wildlife SOS to bring back the sterilization process to control the monkey population in the city and their growing terror, but the complete lockdown made it difficult to get in touch with the authorities,” said Vineeta Arora, an animal rights activist and owner of an NGO Casper’s Home. She added, “I have plans to reach out to authorities to bring a strong solution to this human-monkey menace, but no one will listen to our demands during the pandemic because monkeys are not a priority right now.”.
The Agra administration is aware of the problem. “The city is living in the terror of monkeys. We are trying to deal with it. We have put forward the issues in front of the higher authorities as the situation is beyond our control now. Many people have also died because of monkeys,” said Agra mayor Naveen Jain in October 2019 to the news agency ANI.
The only solution that has come forth since then is to hire langurs to scare or catch monkeys, but not all are convinced about it. “It’s another menace in itself and in fact a more deadly one,” says Vineeta Arora on hiring langurs.
The municipal corporation seems to have few ideas to deal with the menace even as residents continue to be harassed or live in terror as the wild simians roam around the city attacking, injuring, and even killing people. Monkeys may only be looking for food and water, as animal rights activists have said. The simians would not like a place where they are chased, chained or captured either but as human beings have encroached on their territory, they have come to human habitation too. Residents of Agra wonder if and what the local administration will do to counter the monkey menace.
