Wild monkey on rampage for past one year, captured

PUDUCHERRY: A wild male monkey that went berserk in the past one year after villagers killed its mate, was finally caught by Puducherry forest officials on Wednesday morning. The monkey had wreaked havoc along Puducherry-Villupuram border near Auroville by attacking more than 30 people including babies.
The monkey, around seven years old and weighing approximately 25 kg, was particularly ferocious on infants.It attacked a one-and-half year old girl, Kavya from Alankuppam, twice inflicting serious injuries. On both the occasions (June and August this year) the girl had to undergo surgeries which required more than 12 stitches on the head. Forest officer S Thiyagarajan while quoting villagers said a section of people brutally assaulted and killed its mate a year ago. Since then male monkey went wild and started attacking the villagers. The forest officials in Puducherry and Villupuram districts launched collaborative efforts in capturing the monkey. However, this monkey evaded capture for more than a year.
“We tried all methods including the conventional cage trap where fruits including bananas were kept to lure the monkeys into the cage and capture them. But this wild monkey was never tempted to enter the cage. Moreover we could not spot the monkey easily either in day or night but kept hearing incidents of its attack on villagers,” said Thiyagarajan.
Deputy conservator of forests G Sathiyamoorthy said the department posted a team near the Puducherry-Villupuram border round the clock for the past one month. They kept a cage with fruits but did not make arrangements to trap the monkey by closing its door in an effort to invite it to take the fruits. The monkey started visiting the cage regularly for 18 days and on Wednesday morning the officials planned to capture it and successfully laid the trap. A team of veterinary doctors that visited the village has proposed to conduct medical examinations on the monkey and analyze its behavioural pattern. “We cannot leave this monkey in the wild or natural habitat as we generally do whenever we capture wild animals. We will perform a detailed medical examination before deciding the next course of action,” Sathiyamoorthy said.