Monkeys vs Langoors

I dislike monkeys and langoors, they are aggressive creatures, who seemed to attack women more than men. In school, it was scary to walk down passages that had a family of monkeys who used to bear their teeth at us. We heard stories of Langoors tails scaring students.

Sanawar hires langoors to chase away monkeys
G. S. Paul
Tribune News Service

Sanawar, September 7
Udham, Ramu and Chunia are new entrants in Lawrence School, Sanawar. They are not students but langoors who have been engaged by the school authorities to chase the monkeys away who are creating havoc on the campus.

“The monkey menace has been bothering us, especially in the mornings when the students come for breakfast. The monkeys get infuriated on seeing the packets of food in the hands of the children and end up attacking them, grabbing at the food,” explains the sports teacher and House Master of Shivalik House, Mr Daljinder Singh.

This is their way of getting rid of this nuisance. “Instead of shooting them with a gun or with a ‘gulel’ this is perhaps better,” avers Mr Singh.

As the monkeys and langoors are known not to share a friendly rapport, it is hoped that the monkeys on seeing their arch enemies ensconced in the school, will stay away. The school management has given a three-month contract to the owners of the langoors—Sameer, Aslam and Ali Baba, all residents of Colony No 4 at Phase 1, Ram Durbar, Chandigarh—to house them on campus.

The three men in their mid-thirties have hardly gone to school themselves but have a hard task ahead of them. “At the moment, we are living at 10 minutes’ walking distance from the school. The accommodation is provided by the school. Our day starts early in the morning at around 5 am and till six in the evening we are on our toes, taking rounds of the school, driving the monkeys away,” says Aslam.

Sharing their experiences, they tell us that these langoors have a strong sense of smell. They are kept tied to a long string, the end of which is in the hands of these three men. The moment they smell the monkeys approaching, they start dragging them to where the monkeys are. “One langoor is enough to chase away 40 to 50 monkeys,” smiles Sameer.

But should a dog come on the scene, the langoors get frightened and that poses a problem for the owners. “The dogs bite them and chase them. That is sometimes difficult to control. But now we keep a hockey stick to chase the dogs away,” says Sameer.

In fact, they are professional monkey menace combaters. The langoors are captured and then undergo special training in Delhi when they are a year or two old.

The older members of their family run this business in Delhi in areas around Connaught Place, the Lal Kila, Moti Bagh etc.

Sameer has earlier worked in Chandigarh, where he provided services at the PGI, Panjab University, Punjab Engineering College and Controller of Defence Accounts Office.

The owners of these langoors get approximately Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 per animal for their services and they have been in this profession for a long time. “I was nine years old when I got Udham. That way, Udham is now 26 years old,” smiles Sameer proudly.

However, it is not easy to feed and look after these animals. “Their diet is almost equivalent of an adult person but they are strict vegetarians.”

Just feeding the langoor costs an average of Rs 100 to 150 per day so it is essentially a hand-to-mouth existence for the owners since two people live off one langoor,” explains Ali Baba, the owner of Chunia langoor.

Having the langoors on the campus seems to have worked, agree the students at Lawrence School as the number of monkeys roaming the campus has drastically reduced.