Official Dies in Monkey Battle

by Jordan Yerman | October 21, 2007 at 02:16 pm

657 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

I quote so many sources below to point out the differences in reportage: some report that the Deputy Mayor fell whilst fighting the monkeys, others claim he fell whilst running away. Some say he was on his roof, others that he was on the terrace. Some say it was a single monkey that forced the Deputy Mayor off the roof, most say it was several. The various sources are also unable to agree on the day of the incident.

Delhi's Deputy Mayor S S Bajwa died in New Delhi on Sunday of head injuries after falling from the terrace of his house following an attack by monkeys.

The 52-year-old Corporator from Anand Vihar ward was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Apollo hospital on Saturday with multiple injuries and his condition deteriorated later leading to his death on Sunday morning, BJP Delhi President Harsh Vardhan said.

Bajwa, a businessman and Delhi BJP Vice-President, was walking on the terrace of the first floor of his house when the monkeys attacked him after which he lost balance and fell from terrace at around 8 AM on Saturday.

Delhi's Deputy Mayor S.S. Bajwa died Sunday of head injuries after a fall from the terrace of his house, reportedly while trying to fend off an attacking monkey.

A senior official of Indian capital Delhi died after he suffered severe head injuries while trying to escape from a group of aggressive monkeys, officials said.

Delhi deputy mayor SS Bajwa, 52, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was reading a newspaper on his terrace on Friday when he was attacked by the monkeys, party official Harsh Vardhan said.

Bajwa fell from the terrace while trying to escape his attackers.

Delhi Deputy Mayor Sawinderjit Singh Bajwa (57), who fell off the terrace of his house on Saturday morning, succumbed to head and spinal injuries at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital on Sunday. Family members said he fell while trying to stave off rampaging monkeys.

The incident happened around 7 am on Saturday when Bajwa was having his morning tea and reading the paper. Locals say monkeys are a big problem in the area but despite repeated complaints, nothing has been done. "We had even hired a Langur but the problem still persists. All of us have been facing this problem for the past several years," said Shweta Jain, Bajwa's neighbour.

A langur is a larger monkey; these bad boys were brought in to deal with the menace of the smaller monkeys, with varying degrees of success:

One approach has been to train bands of larger, more ferocious langur monkeys to go after the smaller groups of Rhesus macaques.

The city has also employed monkey catchers to round them up so they can be moved to forests.

But the problem has persisted.

It's a strange and difficult problem, since New Delhi is a huge city and the monkeys are just not used to dealing with urban life in the same way people are. Also, eradication isn't really an option due to the monkeys' place in Indian culture: they are the embodiment of Hanuman the monkey king, whose image is depicted across the East, from India to Cambodia, where the simian deity appears amongst the carvings in the temple city of Angkor..