Attacked by Monkeys!
on Margaret Campbell's Rambles (India), 19/Oct/2009 17:04, 34 days ago
 Well, I think to be perfectly fair you have to have physical contact to say that you've been attacked, although the dictionary would allow my headline. Perhaps grudgingly. So here's the scoop. I took a few days for a busman's holiday to visit Andra Pradesh and do some hiking in the tribal areas there and stayed at a"jungle" eco lodge. Does not compare favorably with Costa Rica but as it was a 5  hour train ride rather than a 12,000 mile plane ride it was a good option. Plus, I've been to Costa Rica. And, I did see some yellow orioles. I walked up the road to the top of the hill for lovely views over the Eastern Ghats (hills) and on my return ran into a band of wild monkeys. Dozens ofthem on the road. Which is not that uncommon a sight here. But suddenly a big male jumped up on the concrete barrier and rearing up on his hind legs, rushed me baring his horrible fangs and making blood-curdling noises. Now, I like to say that I am not scared of anything, but this monkey was the size of a small Labrador Retriever so I freaked and retreated up the road to get a stick. Boy, was I wishing I had those trekking poles I lugged 12,000 miles to India and then left in my suitcase in temporary lodgings. I imagined myself fending off rabid dogs as I built my endurance by hiking the Orissa hills after work. Little did I know that it gets pitch dark at 6 PM every day and always will because India is on one time zone, we are at the eastern edge and are close to the equator. So…. Hiking after work not an option. Also too many holes in the road and fresh cow puddles to want to go anywhere after dark. Anyway, the street dog packs completely ignore you and are no trouble at all. Not so monkeys. Let me tell you, monkeys are not cute. I have a story I could tell you from the '70's about a monkey but this is a family blog so that would have to be another time. They are, at best, pests, but usually scamper away when confronted, and receive a well-aimed rock by a local guy if they get too frisky around people. Not so for the deputy mayor of India's capital city Delhi in 2007 who was killed on his own balcony by"a horde of wild monkeys." (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7055625.stm) They have a real problem in India because monkeys are sacred and people, particularly in cities, give offerings to the monkey god Hanuman. The monkeys think this is just dandy and have come to believe that they are entitled to these offerings and will attack when there is food around. Approaches to reducing the urban monkey overpopulation are controversial because no one wants to hurt them. Except me. And Rudyard Kipling. Remember the monkeys in The Jungle Book? Not nice. Anyway, I found a pretty big stick and rose up to my full 5'9" trying to look a whole lot larger and returned to Monkeyville, rerunning all the episodes of The Dog Whisperer I could think of, which are a lot. Bad Boy was not at all afraid of the stick but shouting and waving my arms drove him back where he merely glared at me and made disgusting noises. So I was feeling pretty good swinging down that road, master of the monkeys until 5 feet above my head at 10 o'clock INCOMING!!! There was a whole other flank of monkeys, 20 or 30 and another bad boy male who easily could have jumped down on me like those flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz. More yelling, this time mostly involuntary, but oops, on my right a little guy came flying up over the concrete barrier into the road snapping his jaws and drooling. I had monkeys on the left, monkeys on the right, stand up sit down, fight, fight, fight! So I got the heck out of there. But it was kind of fun chasing the last dozen or so back over the barrier because they were scared of me. Those are the ones you see below making their way up the road after our encounter. The fuzzy snap is because I dared not get any closer! Whew. No more monkeys for me, not even t-shirts with monkeys on them for the grandkids. Hear that Sierra?        Yes, we had a 5' snake in our office the next day but that hardly compared with the money attack.  A few more pix of the busman's holiday below.          The Eastern Ghats (hills) are pictured on the left, rising up from the coastal plain about 5 hours from here, and the Durga Temple and village in center and right are located in Araku Valley, a picturesque farming community two hours from here by train.