NEW DELHI: Mayur Vihar resident Aravind Akshan is hurt and angry. He has been a victim of the capital’s growing simian menace and wants the problem to end once and for all.

On March 19, the 59-year-old was walking down the C-block road to his office when a monkey came after him. Akshan said it was a fat and rabid-looking animal which behaved quite aggressively when he tried to shoo it away. Akshan then turned to face the animal, which leapt at him and bit his shoulder.

Terrified, Akshan ran and managed to enter an abandoned shop, but the monkey followed him into it and again bit him, this time on the foot. He cried out in pain even as the monkey snatched his food packet and ran away.

Akshan gave an SOS call to police. A PCR van came and took him to Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital where his wounds were treated.

Later, he went to the Pandav Nagar police station where a case of assault was registered. No, it was not against the monkey but against unknown people. Akshan reasoned that it was the callous attitude of the authorities that had led to the attack. “I have been attacked by other animals earlier but this time I decided to register a complaint so that someone is held accountable,” he said.

Senior police officers said East Delhi Municipal Corporation officials have been intimated and requested to conduct a drive to remove the primates from the area. “We have been approached by a citizen with a genuine concern and we will address it as per the norms,” an officer said. .

There have been no effective curbs on the monkey menace in the capital ever since a ban was imposed on the use of langurs to scare away the smaller primates—a measure that was always temporary. The problem is also acute in Gurgaon, but the municipal corporation there recently hired an agency from Mathura to catch and relocate the animals. An equivalent response from Delhi’s civic bodies hasn’t come yet.