Authorities have also placed ‘life-size’ cutouts of langurs along major roads and in frequented locations to prevent the smaller rhesus monkeys from playing spoilsport during the G20 summit next week.
Life-size cutouts of langurs have sprung up in several parts of New Delhi over the last few days as officials look to prevent the smaller rhesus monkeys from playing spoilsport during the G20 summit that will take place next week.
Rhesus monkeys are a menace in many areas in India’s national capital, running across busy roads without warning – putting both themselves and motorists at risk – and often attacking unsuspecting pedestrians or residents.
The langur – a bigger primate with a black face – is commonly used by authorities in the city to scare away monkeys, with the antidote already working well in this instance, officials said.
“We cannot harm them or remove them (the monkeys), our only option is to confine them to their (forested) areas,” said Satish Upadhyay, the vice-chairperson of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), which is carrying out the work.
Apart from placing the cutouts of langurs along major roads and in locations that monkeys tend to frequent, the NDMC has deployed “30 to 40 people” who mock their sounds to create the impression that the animals are alive and moving.
Source : SBS News
