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40 men in ape suits to scare monkeys away from Indian parliament complex

This article is more than 12 months old

"If you can’t beat them, join them."

That’s the approach Indian officials are taking to scare away hordes of macaques plaguing its parliament.

The Indian government is hiring men to pose as menacing langur monkeys, The Telegraph reported.

The “very talented” group of 40 men has taken to wearing monkey masks, imitating their whoops and barks and hiding behind trees to ward off the aggressive animals, the head of the Delhi municipality told AFP.

The New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), the body tasked with providing civic services, said the men were “very talented” and had been trained to “closely copy” the noises and actions of the more aggressive langurs to scare away the smaller rhesus macaques. 

“They often wear a mask on their faces, hide behind the trees and make these noises to scare away the simians,” NDMC chairman Jalaj Srivastava told AFP.

If the ape-men failed to rid the capital’s administrative centre of the monkey menace then marksmen armed with rubber bullets could be deployed.

A New Delhi Municipal Corporation employee fires a paintball gun as he demonstrates methods to scare away monkeys

Groups of monkeys, which are revered in the majority Hindu nation, roam freely around Delhi’s streets where they trash gardens, offices and even attack people in search of food. 

Source: The Telegraph, AFP

 

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