India to put monkeys on the pill in bid to tackle rising population of marauding macaques



Indian council chiefs have come up with a novel way of dealing with a scourge of marauding monkeys - putting them on the pill.

New Delhi is currently plagued by thousands of red-bottomed Rhesus Macaques or Bhandar monkeys and their population is rising.



The primates often attack people to steal food, chew through internet cables and roam free through government buildings.

Nuisance: Rhesus Macaques in New Delhi, India, where city officials are planning to curb the rising populations by putting the primates on the pill

In 2007 Delhi's deputy mayor SS Bajwa died after falling from his first-floor terrace trying to fight off monkeys.



The city had previously employed monkey catchers who would use larger black-faced Langur monkeys to scare the smaller primates away.



But the practise was banned earlier this year forcing officials to come up with a new solution.

A three-pronged strategy will involve oral contraceptives, female sterilisation and vasectomies

India's Central Zoo Authority got in touch with the National Primate Centre in California which recommended using oral contraceptives, female sterilisation and vasectomies, officials said.

The oral contraceptives will be put in food and left for the monkeys to find while those that can be caught will be sterilised.

Professor P.C. Tyagi of the Wildlife Institute of India said the plan would only get the go-ahaead when they were sure it would have no harmful effect on the animals or their behaviour.

He told the Telegraph: 'The population is increasing in the cities, they are causing a disturbance. People can't come out of their houses, they're taking clothes, biting people.

'One of the main advantages [of oral contraception] is that it is non-surgical. We'll look at how it works in other countries, carry out a trial, then we'll go ahead.



'If there are problems with the dosage, we'd need to work that out.'



It follows a succesful monkey birth control programme in Hong Kong, where from 2002 officials have neutered or temprarily neutered around 1,500 macaques.





