World | India
Simian raid spurs security fears
It was a scene out of the 1996 Hollywood blockbuster Dunston Checks In. Except that instead of a hotel it was a well-protected bungalow of the national capital which became the target of simian mischief.
- By Ajay Jha, Chief Correspondent
- Published: 00:18 November 14, 2007
New Delhi: It was a scene out of the 1996 Hollywood blockbuster Dunston Checks In. Except that instead of a hotel it was a well-protected bungalow of the national capital which became the target of simian mischief.
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) received a phone call on Monday complaining that a horde of monkeys had entered 35 Lodhi Estate.
The call touched off panic because 35 Lodhi Estate is home to Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi. Priyanka lives at that address with her husband Robert Vadra and their two children.
Monkeys already on prowl in the city had over the past two days bitten at least 31 people in different parts of the city. The very thought of the monkeys biting Priyanka or her family sent shivers down the spines of NDMC officials.
An official admitted that instead of trying to catch the simians, the best they could do was to send a langur, which scares away the monkeys. The problem was temporarily resolved, but the bigger question of tackling the growing monkey menace continues to bother the civic authorities and even the courts.
Targets
Although Priyanka is not a member of parliament, she was allotted the corner bungalow in an area set aside for lawmakers as she and her family are protected by the elite National Security Guards due to the threat the Gandhi-Nehru family face from terrorists.
The scare at Priyanka's house was weeks after the city's deputy mayor S.S. Bajwa suffered serious head injuries in a fall from the terrace of his house while trying to fight off a horde of monkeys.
Already two members of the family, Priyanka's grandmother Indira Gandhi and father Rajiv Gandhi have been targets for assassination. "We received the complaint at around 3:30pm and immediately rushed a team of three people along with a langur. We could not catch the monkey, but it definitely ran away at the sight of the langur," an NDMC official said.
Monkeys have created a havoc in the metropolis with six people bitten on Monday in an East Delhi locality. This followed a similar incident on Saturday in another East Delhi locality where 25 people were bitten by monkeys.
Interestingly, the provincial Delhi government has washed its hands of its responsibility saying basically it is the job of the civic agencies.
In a letter to Delhi Mayor Aarti Mehra, provincial Urban Development Minister Rajkumar Chauhan has asked the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to intensify its operation to catch monkeys and has offered additional funds. MCD, however, has a different story to tell. "We don't have enough cages to catch them. The cages are supposed to be supplied by the Wildlife Department and are in short supply," a senior official at MCD's veterinary department said.
In fact, the situation is so bad that MCD had to bring a team of monkey catchers from Tamil Nadu, who do the job manually, catching about four monkeys each day and getting paid Rs450 (Dh41) a catch. It is, however, not enough to get the city rid of its huge money population.
Revenge
While the attention on Monday was at Priyanka's Lodhi Estate bungalow, MCD officials believed they had seen the last of the monkey that had created havoc at Shastri Park area of East Delhi on Saturday.
They locked it in a room but could do nothing beyond it as they did not have the tranquiliser dart. The monkey escaped at the first opportunity and bit at least another half a dozen people in revenge.
Despite several deadlines and reminders by the Delhi High Court, local authorities have so far failed to tackle the menace. Other states have refused to accept Delhi's money even at a cost. Delhi government had in the past paid Madhya Pradesh Rs2.5 million (Dh227,272) for relocating captured monkeys
But Delhi's monkeys almost destroyed a forest there leading to other states' refusal to touch Delhi's simians.
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