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| Suraj on the lookout |
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| On patrol |
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| Relaxing after a hard day's work |
Set a monkey to catch a monkey
Woodstock now has three trained langurs whose job is to keep the campus free from the ever-increasing menace of bands of rhesus monkeys. We've spent the last week in the communications office thinking of all the wisecracks that could be made. "Trained monkeys could work at Woodstock" - well, that's certainly the case now. "Pay peanuts, get monkeys" - I'm not even sure that we pay them peanuts, but their handlers certainly cost more than that.
The reality, of course, is less amusing. Mussoorie generally, along with many parts of India and the rest of the world, is prone to the problem of troops of monkeys who scavenge around for food scraps. There is little natural control over the numbers, and for many years there has been a battle of wits between the school administration and the monkeys, which the monkeys seem to be winning (sorry, that one belonged in the first paragraph!)
Periodically we have reduced their numbers by having catchers in and transporting them (the monkeys, not the catchers) down to Rajaji Park, but others fill the gap. The CARE organization have devised ever more monkey-proof garbage cans and composting bins, but no strategy so farhas been effective.
Enter Suraj, Pavan and Bhawan. Working with their handlers they roam the campus at critical times ensuring that the paths are clear for students and staff to walk to and from school. Suraj, in particular, has become something of a favourite, his gold earring and necklace giving him something of a piratical air as he surveys his new domain.
The use of trained langurs has been in the news for a few years, particularly in relation to the government offices in South Block, Delhi, where this innovative idea was first tried out. It proved to be successful at least initially in displacing the monkeys from that area, and evidence so far is that it is having a similar effect here.