Indian authorities, preparing for next week’s G20 summit, have recruited a team of ‘monkey people’ and posted pictures of primates to prevent real monkeys from eating bouquets on displays for global leaders.
As reported AFPWednesday (30/8/2023), New Delhi’s city council has hired more than 30 ‘monkey wallah’ or ‘monkey men’ who will be tasked with imitating the screams of the aggressive langur monkeys — a natural enemy of the tiny rhesus primate primates that often wreak havoc in leafy capital area.
“We cannot move the monkeys from their natural habitat, so we have deployed a team of 30-40 people who are trained to scare the monkeys,” New Delhi City Council deputy chairman Satish Upadhyay told reporters. AFP.
“We will deploy one person each in the hotels where the delegates will stay, as well as in places where monkeys have been reported,” he added.
Though revered in this predominantly Hindu country, monkeys are a major threat and often destroy parks, offices, and roofs of residential areas, even viciously attacking people for food.
The New Delhi metropolitan area, which has a population of around 30 million, has been beautified since India assumed the G20 presidency last year.
Local police prepared a near-closed downtown New Delhi for the September 9-10 G20 summit, with roads blocked and a holiday in effect, and business centers temporarily closed.
But fears that troopers of monkeys would attack a motorcade carrying Presidents and Prime Ministers from G20 nations led the New Delhi City Council to ask the Forestry Department for help in drawing up a plan.
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