Monkey Menace

A Mango Tree and a Mano Kamini forming a single Umbrella Canopy

Our 120+ year old house with its sprawling greens, right in the heart of the city, is an urban paradise for the birds, the butterflies n the bees, what with a riot of flowers; fruiting trees like Mangoes, Guava’s, Jackfruit, Custard Apple, Bel, and Lemon; and a thriving kitchen garden with carrots, radish, cauliflower n cabbages, mustard, spinach, chili, tomatoes, coriander et al. Most of the vegetable and fruits produced is used for home consumption and often shared with the neighborhood friends, cousins, the helpers at home and yeah the MONKEYS!

  Kitchen Garden @ Side Yard
As of now, some of the beds have been cleared for the next plantation

In the recent years, troop of monkeys  have started visiting our house, almost every other day, messing up and uprooting the potted plants, ravaging the kitchen garden; creating havoc during the mango growing season, destroying the mango crop, merely plucking them, munching on them and then throwing away the half-eaten mangoes.

Monkey drinking water from the tap

There have been instances when these marauding monkeys have entered our dining room, from the back door, for a bunch of bananas. Once, a rather audacious monkey, even dared to open the refrigerator and took off with only a boiled potato. No doubt, they are super-intelligent creatures….as they know how to unlash the lid of the water tanks and enjoy a refreshing dip in it during the summers. They have somehow even learn't how to turn open the tap and drink water, though, never ever close it back.

Occasionally, we use an unloaded air gun to scare them and to keep them at bay. Just the site of a person carrying the air gun is enough to make them run helter-skelter and disperse momentarily. They are becoming an urban menace with an increasing threat to us, the kids, the neighborhood, when they attack and even bite. Come to think of it, our otherwise ferocious Labrador.... is scared of them too.

Roses, Ixora n Ficus - up close from the roof

Yesterday turned out to be one hell of a day, when our domestic helper’s 8 year old son had a narrow escape after coming face-to-face with a one such monkey on the roof. He had been flying a kite along with his elder brother and in his haste, the kid, jumped off the 12 feet high ceiling. Thank God for small mercies, he landed on a Bushy Ixora plant growing as a hedge, which cushioned his fall to a large extent. He’s been in a state of shock, ever since, has no visible wounds, but has been under observation, to rule out any internal injuries and/or fractures.

Dangerous! It looks like the Ixora is just a step away from the roof. Isn't it ?

There family of five live in the adjoining quarters. All three boys, between the age group of 14yrs and 8yrs, usually spend their free time, before and after school, playing cricket in the yard or flying kites or chasing after them… on the roof, along with 3-4 other kids from the neighborhood.

He had his parents and all of us in the family worried and on our toes for a major part yesterday. More so recalling our families personal memories from the past when my brother had taken a similar fall from almost the same place decades back as a 5^th grader in school. He too had been chasing a kite back then. Trying to retrieve it from a tree top,  he jumped on these precarious tin roof covers of the servant quarter’s, which caved in under his weight, taking him along. He too had a narrow escape with only a fracture in his arm. Some memories!

Anyways, with a rather frenzied n eventful day behind us, I am glad the kid is safe. Hopefully, they will now be more cautious before whizzing upstairs to fly kites and, yeah, stay away from these monkeys.

I wish some action could be taken by the civic authorities and the forest department to rehabilitate the monkeys, so that they stop encroaching on human establishments while posing to threaten our personal safety.