To avoid monkeys, mark eating areas at AIIMS, says Maneka

NEW DELHI: To curb monkey menace at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Union minister and animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi has suggested demarcation of special areas where “people can feed themselves”.

“The basic problem in AIIMS is the easy availability of food. If this is monitored then all these animals will disappear overnight. Otherwise, we can keep removing the dogs and monkeys but they will all be replaced overnight by new groups,” Menaka Gandhi said in reply to a letter written by the hospital’s resident doctors association, which has been writing to the hospital administration, health ministry and animal activists for solutions for several years.

Every day, there are three or four incidents of people – including doctors, staff and patients and their relatives – getting bitten by dogs and monkeys, the letter by the Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) of the hospital said.

Some of other measures suggested by the minister include dustbins with lids, asking people not to throw leftover food on the hospital premises, and asking people over loudspeakers to not share food with animals.

But RDA members said these solutions are impractical.

“Every day, there are so many people who come to AIIMS. Who will keep an eye and ensure they are eating at the designated areas. Plus, it is not just the leftovers, animals even snatch food from peoples’ bags,” said Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti, president of the RDA. “A monkey snatched all the medical reports of a patient in my OPD recently because he had a banana in the same bag,” he said.

Every day, around 10,000 patients go to the out-patient department of AIIMS, with two or three family members.

“Almost 30 -40% of the patients who come to the hospital are from outside Delhi and they spend the days inside the hospital and the nights on pavements outside. They usually have their food wherever they are sitting,” said Bhatti.