Last updated at 11:37 22 October 2007

The Indian capital Delhi is mourning the loss of its deputy mayor today who died after being attacked by a horde of wild monkeys.

SS Bajwa suffered serious head injuries when he fell from the first-floor terrace of his home on Saturday morning trying to chase off the monkeys.

The deputy mayor was no stranger to monkeys, living near to a temple dedicated to Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god, where hundreds of monkeys gather every day.

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His death has reignited a row about how to handle its population of 5,500 rhesus macaques.

The city has long struggled to counter its plague of monkeys, which invade government complexes and temples, snatch food and scare passers-by.

The High Court demanded the city find an answer to the problem last year.

One approach has been to train bands of larger langur monkeys to go after the smaller groups of Rhesus macaques.

The city government has also advertised for people to join its current team of three monkey catchers.

They are willing to pay 450 rupees (£5) per monkey.

But having received no responses, the government has failed to tackle the problem.

Culling is seen as unacceptable to devout Hindus, who revere the monkeys as a manifestation of the monkey god Hanuman, and often feed them bananas and peanuts.

Urban development around the city has also been blamed for destroying the monkeys' natural habitat.

Mr Bajwa, a member of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is survived by his wife and a son.