India tries birth control to curb monkey business

Primate pests bite, steal and vandalize

On a typical afternoon in a posh neighborhood, a troop of rhesus macaque monkeys climbs the wall of an apartment building to rooftop water tanks with a specific goal.

The monkeys swing like circus performers until one of the water pipes snaps off, then they rush to drink the spraying water.

“It happens quite often,” homeowner Shakun Chandhok said. “They used to jump into the balcony and come into the kitchen and open the fridge, just like any human being does.”

The orange or gray monkeys, which weigh 12 to 17 pounds, are among the most dreaded pests in India, biting about 1,000 people a day nationwide and overrunning cities such as New Delhi. The monkey problem has become so overwhelming that officials are searching for ways to use birth control on the animals.

In the fruit- growing state of Himachal Pradesh, monkeys have increased more than fivefold in the past decade, according the government. The animals create up to $ 300 million in crop losses and diverted labor every year. Himachal Pradesh formed a task force this month to cull the animals, which officials recently declared vermin. In the neighboring state of Uttarakhand, scien- tists at the Wildlife Institute of India will test an injectable contraceptive that has been used on white- tailed deer and wild horses in the USA.

City and state governments have tried numerous methods to control the monkey troubles. Since the monkeys are associated with the Hindu god Hanuman, mass culling has never been attempted.

Injections present challenges. A single dose lasts only one year, and after that, booster shots are necessary.

At nearly $ 100 a dose, that’s too costly for widespread use in the USA, let alone in India.

AFP/ GETTY IMAGES This monkey lives in a shelter, so it’s not to blame.