“Monkeys cannot be displaced, harmed or hit.”
“(The monkeys) don’t want to come near the large cutouts of the langurs as they get scared,” Satish Upadhyay, vice-chairperson of the New Delhi Municipal Council, told Indian news agency ANI. The small monkeys are found across the capital, running across roads, bouncing between rooftops, causing a general nuisance and occasionally attacking unexpected pedestrians.Īs the government embarks on a major beautification drive, freshly painting walls, planting trees and placing colorful flowers in key areas across town, New Delhi’s authorities have taken steps to ensure the animals don’t ruin those efforts.Įnter the langur – or at least, cardboard cutouts of langurs – and men trained to sound like the bigger primates. Little is being left to chance, not even the city’s notoriously mischievous population of rhesus macaques. India is gearing up to welcome the leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) countries in New Delhi next weekend, including US President Joe Biden, in an event that has been given utmost prominence at home.
Authorities in India are determined to keep a lid on any monkey business ahead of world leaders jetting in next week, by placing life-size cutouts of angry langurs across the capital to dissuade smaller pesky primates from wreaking havoc or hogging the limelight while the nation takes center stage.
