India's new government won an overwhelming mandate in the recent elections, and now it has taken on another parliamentary foe: marauding monkeys.

India's housing and urban development minister, Venkaiah Naidu, told MPs that 40 professional monkey impersonators would be deployed around government buildings to police the cheeky rhesus macaque monkeys who regularly trespass in the corridors of power, terrorising senior bureaucrats, stealing files and snatching food.

The human monkey scarers will disguise themselves as the macaque's natural nemesis, the larger, black-faced langur, Naidu said.

Reports suggesting the scarers will dress up as langurs are not true, said PK Sharma, the chief health officer for the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC).

"These are men who are village performers and some of them have played monkeys on stage," Sharma said. "So they mimic the sound of the langur and it scares the smaller, red-faced macaques away."

If that doesn't work, authorities will use rubber bullets, Naidu said.

Real langur monkeys were used to chase away macaques around Delhi for decades, until 2012 when India's environment ministry began enforcing a 42-year-old wildlife law that prohibits keeping langurs in captivity.

Since then, authorities have been flooded with complaints. One internet noticeboard is filled with reports from residents about monkeys slapping schoolchildren and breaking into water tanks.

One woman, Rma Chopra, described an incident in which she threw a stone at an approaching monkey while shelling peas on her rooftop, only to have a gang of five threaten her. After barricading herself in a storeroom, she was rescued by police wielding bamboo lathis, or sticks.

Harried residents say they have few options apart from using captive langurs, despite the ban.

In south Delhi's affluent Kailash Colony neighbourhood, Deep Chand patrols local streets and parks with one of his four langurs to chase away macaques. Residents were fed up with packs of brazen monkeys entering homes, opening fridges and biting people.

"I'm paid 15,000 rupees (£145) per month," Chand said. "Yes, the government has banned the use of langurs but people are still hiring us. There's no problem."

While the fuzzy macaques, along with elephants, peacocks, stray dogs and parrots provide a colourful backdrop to Delhi life, they also pose a public health hazard.

The number of reported monkey bites is second in India only to dog bites, according to the World Health Organisation, with some attacks proving lethal.

In 2007, New Delhi's deputy mayor, Surinder Singh Bajwa, fell from his terrace and died after being attacked by monkeys at his home.

But Indians still revere monkeys as much as they fear them. Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god, is believed to bring strength and good luck. And to gain his favour, many Hindus willingly give food to wild monkeys.

"The problem is worst at lunchtime near government offices in Delhi where people feed them regularly," said Anil Kumar, NDMC enforcement officer.

Few believe hiring langur impersonators will solve the problem, least of all the MP who raised the issue in parliament.

"We are wasting money by training humans to scare away monkeys," MP Ambeth Rajan told the Business Standard. "The simians should be caught and released in a jungle."

The NDMC does still capture and release monkeys in nearby wildlife sanctuaries. "But they come back in search of food," Kumar said.

Meanwhile, in Uma Grover's home, one monkey story has become family legend. "A monkey crept down into the courtyard of our house in full daylight," Grover said, recounting an incident from her childhood. "Before anyone noticed, it picked up my cousin who was still an infant and dashed up into a tree."

Thankfully Grover's cousin survived her abduction in 1943. After the child's mother fainted, a priest was rushed in to conduct prayers and various solutions, including shooting the monkey, were mooted by family elders.

"After an hour, the monkey got bored," Grover said. "It climbed down from the tree in our courtyard and traded my cousin for a stack of chapatis."