With the country-wide lockdown and no pilgrims visiting the ancient and historic Sri Anjaneya Swamy devasthanam in Kondagattu of Jagtial district, the monkeys living in the hillocks there are suffering from hunger and have turned violent.
Moved by the plight of monkeys at the temple on the hillocks, Karimnagar Municipal corporator Bonala Srikanth, who is an ardent devotee of Lord Hanuman, has taken up the task of serving food to the monkeys every day. He has taken permission from Karimnagar police to travel to the temple in Jagtial district and is providing food to monkeys since last fortnight.
Every day he collects around 60 kgs of tomatoes, and other vegetables and 50 dozens of bananas from the vegetable market and also several hundreds of chapathis and serves them to the monkeys at the temple. The falling prices of vegetables has made his task of feeding the simians easier.
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The monkeys have so got used to him that the moment they notice his vehicle coming they arrive in hordes and patiently wait for the distribution of the food and interestingly they neither pounce on him to snatch the food from his hands nor crowd him, he said. The animals collect the food in a disciplined manner, he claims.
Some 20 odd families living near the shrine, who have also been affected by the lockdown asked Mr. Srikanth to provide them some vegetables. He promised to distribute vegetables twice a week to each family and started distributing it to the households from Monday.
“I am really thankful to God for helping me serve the food to the monkeys, which are also worshipped in our country. I will continue serving food to the monkeys at the temple till the lockdown is lifted completely,” he said.
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