India has come up with a creative solution to keep its wild monkeys from destroying the floral arrangements planned for the upcoming G20 summit in New Delhi and also keep the foreign delegates safe from their attacks.
It has deployed “monkey-men” and installed cutouts of langurs, a type of primate that is feared by the city’s monkeys.
The city council has recruited over 30 ‘monkey-men,’ experts in mimicking langur sounds, to scare away the smaller and more aggressive monkeys, known for causing chaos in the city by running across busy roads and sometimes attacking people.
“We cannot remove the monkeys from their natural habitats, so instead, we have assembled a team of 30 to 40 men trained to scare them away,” said Satish Upadhyay, Vice Chairman of the New Delhi Municipal Council.Â
He added that a man would be assigned to each hotel where delegates are staying and other monkey-prone areas.
New Delhi will almost come to a standstill during the summit on 9-10 September, with road closures and businesses shutting down.
To keep the monkeys from straying into the city, authorities have started providing food in forested areas.Â
The Vice Chairman noted that the cutouts, placed throughout the city over the past week, are already having a positive effect, with monkeys avoiding areas where they are located.
This is not the first time New Delhi has used langurs to address its monkey problem during a major international event. Live langurs were used during the 2010 Commonwealth Games.Â
Besides, monkeys have become more intelligent; they destroyed a plastic langur that played recorded langur sounds within three days.
We have/ had Real Ones here, deployed and running the affairs
We will always be ahead of India