• Serious Business: Monkey travels 22 km to take revenge on human foe

    National
    Serious Business: Monkey travels 22 km to take revenge on human foe

    Chikmagalur: The internet is full of weird stuffs, so much so that it is rapidly creeping into our daily lives, taking most our time, engrossed in bizarre news. Among such weird stuffs is this ‘non-regular’ revenge news of a monkey.





    It is not every day that you come across revenge stories and that too of a MONKEY! Well, here is one.





    A young male monkey of Bonnet Macaque species, around five years old, was found roaming around Kottigehara snatching fruits and snack packets every now and then. People didn’t worry much since that is the general nature of any monkey and were just cautious when they spotted him.





    Once schools reopened, this monkey was again spotted causing trouble in the area and children were scare of him. Someone complained to the forest department and a team came in to trap the mischievous monkey.





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    Catching this monkey was not at all an easy task. The locals called in the forest staff who later gathered the nearby auto drivers and other people around to help them chase the monkey into a particular direction so that they can trap him. Meanwhile, auto driver Jagadish who also went along to help the forest department team teased to divert the monkey into the direction. The distressed monkey suddenly hopped towards him and attacked him. It bit his hand hard and scraped him off. A visibly startled and scared Jagadish ran away from the spot. The monkey chased him wherever he went. He hid inside his autorickshaw and it attacked the vehicle and tore down the covering sheets.





    “I was scared as hell. The mad monkey was following me everywhere. It bit me so hard that my doctor said my wounds will take at least a month to heal. I can’t drive my auto rickshaw which is my bread and butter. Also, I didn’t go home that day fearing the monkey would follow me home. I have small kids at home. What if it attacks them? I am still very afraid.”





    The ordeal didn’t end here. All thought the monkey had left. Everyone had started going back to their daily routine. But then, a familiar nuisance was spotted in the neighbourhood. The monkey cleverly hopped on to a truck that passed through a road near the Balur forest and reached Kottigehara happily. Jagadish was scared as hell when he heard it.





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    “I felt a chill go down my spine when I heard that the monkey is back in the village. I called the forest department myself and asked them to rush immediately. I haven’t gone out of my hiding. I know it is the same monkey because we all saw a mark on his ear last time and my friend said the villagers noticed it” he said.





    “We really don’t know why the monkey targeted one man. We don’t know if he had caused any harm to the animal previously or was it just an immediate reaction. But, this is the first time we have seen a monkey behaving like this though monkeys attacking humans are not unheard of,” said Mohan Kumar BG, range forest officer, Mudigere. His team carried out the monkey-trapping operation.





    The long-tailed assailant was caught for the second time on September 22. This time, the forest staff released him in a forest area further far off. Jagadish is hoping that the monkey doesn’t return. To be on the safer side he has decided to stay indoors for a few days, just in case.