Residents of Marredpally and its surroundings are a worried lot these days. And it is not the water scarcity or the erratic power supply which is giving them sleepless nights this summer. It is the visit of our tailed cousins — the monkeys — that has become a little too frequent and too troublesome for comfort.
Houses fortified
With the marauding troop carrying out ‘guerrilla ambushes’ on households, residents have been forced to fortify their balconies with iron grills. Such is the nuisance in the area that the many apartment societies have provided long sticks to the security guards, whose prime concern nowadays is to maintain a round-the-clock vigil and drive away the unwanted visitors.
“After buying a new flat recently, we decided to keep the balcony open. But the monkey menace has forced us to opt for grills,” said Dr. Kiran, a resident of West Marredpally.
The monkey troop enters the locality regularly before noon, sneaking into houses through balconies. While some simply take away eatables kept on dinning tables, the enterprising ones open refrigerators and decamp with vegetables and fruits.
Early attack
What is notable is that these intruders strike during the morning bustle, when office-goers and homemakers are busy with their respective chores, residents say. Their problems are intensified if there have a mango tree on the premises.
“Monkeys spend more than an hour on these trees, pick up raw mangoes. If anyone tries to shoo them away, they make menacing moves, charge at them,” Dr. Kiran says.
Influx from forests
GHMC officials admit that menace has been on for the past few months.
“With summer setting in, monkeys from forest areas in Warangal and Medak districts are migrating to the city in search of food and water, creating problems for residents,” said GHMC North Zone Veterinary in-charge T. Srinivas Reddy.
“Veterinary teams track a monkey troop for a week before luring them into the net. After catching them, we segregate monkeys into males and females, keep them in separate cages and sterilise them at our Amberpet facility. We later release them into forests at Khammam, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati after obtaining prior permission from forest department officials,” Mr. Reddy explained.
