Too many monkeys, too close to civilization?

Editor's Note: This is about monkeys, but don't forget the pig problem that plagues our neighborhoods.

Delhi alone has 5,000 marauding macaques, who've stormed the corridors of power around Parliament, temples, residential areas and hospitals. Institutions like the Air Force Bal Bharati School have employed langurs (larger black-faced monkeys) to scare away macaques. It isn't easy. Some determined macaques climbed all the way to the 17th floor of a high-rise apartment building in Gurgaon outside Delhi. "Seeing mean red faces in the window was terrifying," says Tanuja, a TV producer. Luckily her balcony was enclosed. Her neighbour's wasn't and the simian troop duly raided the refrigerator.

Unpleasant man-monkey faceoffs are becoming a terrifying part of everyday life across India. The worst affected are northern states like Delhi, UP, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, where the worship of Hanuman and the feeding of rhesus macaques (considered his living avatar) is widespread. Humans have actually begun to cage themselves into houses and offices to escape the monkey menace. 'Simian vermin' too are being captured and put into barred shelters. Jammu and Kashmir (where the late music producer Gulshan Kumar sent fruits by the truckload for the monkeys at Vaishno Devi temple), Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Kerala are also struggling to cope with aggressive monkeys that forage in troops up to 200 strong.

A monkey attack can lead to rabies and death. People in many areas have changed their habits. Dinesh Sharma, officer in charge of rabies control, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), says 1,603 people took anti-rabies vaccines after monkey attacks in 2003 at MCD clinics and dispensaries. That's more than a two-fold increase in monkey bites from 671 in 2002. Since this excludes central government hospitals, and private clinics and the richer New Delhi Municipal Corporation area, the figure indicates just a part of the problem.