Dear IIT-ians,
Living in a sprawling campus, adjacent to Guindy National Park, you have the best of both worlds: the advantages of living in a big city while escaping its worst irritations. But this luxury comes at a small price. A recently commissioned report on the management of monkeys in your campus says bonnet macaques are scaring some of you. Scaring? Is that all?
Apparently seven troops totalling 195 individuals hang around four hostels, the administration block, a residential area, an engineering block, the nursery and the garbage dump. Compared to wild areas, the report suggests there may be too many monkeys and recommends moving three or four troops from the campus. While this is the commonest method of dealing with unwanted wildlife, it has no scientific validity, nor is it humane. Besides, isn't it ironic these animals are unwelcome in a National Park complex?
Translocated animals do not stay put where they are released; they wander far and wide, perhaps attempting to return home. Dr. Rauf Ali, who studied bonnet macaques in Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve says, “Macaques translocated to the middle of forests invariably find their way to the nearest human habitation.”
I live in a village about 60 km. south of you and have dealt with translocated troops over the years. Let me tell you what is likely to happen to your monkeys after they are moved.
In short order, they will become agricultural pests. Desperate farmers will try to guard their fields but they cannot be vigilant all the time. When they cannot cope with the problem any longer, they will set off “rocket” fire-crackers under the roosting trees at night and harass the terrified monkeys. If that doesn't scare the animals away toward the neighbouring settlement or if they get used to the fireworks, the monkeys will disappear, one by one, in sometimes gory ways. You may cry foul at these methods but these people are really at their wits' end. They don't have the clout to summon the local officials to deal with a situation they didn't create.
If monkeys are released so deep in the jungle that they cannot find their way to the nearest village, how are they going to survive? What to eat and what to avoid is learnt from watching others. If moved to a completely different habitat, your monkeys will be at a distinct disadvantage and many will die. As Dr. Wolfgang Dittus, a primatologist of the Smithsonian Primate Biology Program who has studied macaques for the last 30 years says, “Translocation of monkeys or any wildlife to a national park or wildlife refuge is a clear death sentence for the displaced – it is a political solution, not a biological one. It's a coward's way of killing the monkeys.”
After exporting your problem, are you likely to have peace? Dr. Ali says, “New macaque troops will immediately move in to occupy the vacant spaces left by the ones that have been removed.” Nobody wins, neither you nor the monkeys. You would have only succeeded in spreading your problem to other places. Besides, it's the situation that is causing the trouble, not the animals.
People think monkeys are cute and funny when they feed them but what are the animals thinking? In macaque hierarchy, it is the subordinates who willingly give up their food to dominant ones. So they begin to think of humans as subordinate macaques who can be bullied into submission, says Dr. Dittus. Freely available garbage further compounds the problem. Designing monkey-proof garbage bins is surely no big challenge for your engineering students.
You live on the campus of one of the premier scientific institutions of the country, one carved from a wilderness area and being close to Nature warrants some adjustments. I'm certain your technological skills and scientific understanding can find ways of adapting to life with bonnet macaques.
Sincerely,
Janaki Lenin
