Monkey Business in India's Capital

NEW DELHI, Nov. 30, 2007 — -- If you were a monkey and lived in New Delhi your mating call would sound like an off-key bugle and your home would be, well, everywhere: in the park, on the street, next to parliament -- pretty much any place you pleased.

There are anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 monkeys in the capital, the government says. It's not a new problem, but the simian saturation recently turned deadly. Last month Deputy Mayor S.S. Bajwa, 52, said he was reading his morning papers when monkeys attacked him and he fell off his balcony, according to his family. He later died from his head wounds.

And a group of monkeys recently went on a rampage in the Shastri Park area of east New Delhi, trying to snatch infants before adults beat them back with sticks. Twenty-five people were injured.

"Two monkeys attacked me," 6-year-old Faizan said as he showed monkey bites on his leg that hadn't yet healed. "I had to go to the hospital."

After Bajwa's death the city found itself in the spotlight for not having solved a problem that's been around for years.

In 2002 the Delhi High Court demanded the city eliminate the marauding monkeys. By late 2006, the court was still on the city's case, reprimanding officials for not doing enough.

"If you can't control the monkeys, what can you do?" the court wrote acerbically.

But the problem is getting worse.

Just a few years ago hunters said there were only 5,000 monkeys in New Delhi. But as the city expands (500,000 people move here every year), the monkeys' natural habitat shrinks.

"They attack because of food. Their targets are mainly schoolchildren, housewives," monkey hunter Rajat Bhargava told the BBC. "If you remove a few monkeys, more monkeys will breed."

And the monkeys are not afraid -- of anything.

Hindus worship the monkey god Hanuman, who represents courage, power and faith. And once to twice a week, many people consider it sacred to feed the monkeys. But the animals are not very good at keeping appointment books, so on the other five days they scrounge for food. Everywhere.