Langurs ‘patrol’ Ethipothala, keep tourists safe from cousins

One of the two langurs roped in to tackle the monkey menace at Ethipothala sits tethered to a tree, in Nalgonda on Tuesday.- Photo: Singam Venkataramana

A couple of langurs have been ‘deployed’ to keep away stray monkeys from troubling tourists at Ethipothala, near Nagarjunasagar. Though the monkeys have never attacked the tourists, they prevented the free movement of people in the area, Tourism Officer K. Datta Kumar told

The Hindu .

Since the temples of Ranganatha Swamy and Dattatreya Swamy were located in the valley near the waterfall, tourists hesitated to walk down to offer prayers to the presiding deities, Mr. Datta Kumar said. Particularly reluctant were women, children and the elderly. “My family found it difficult to move around in the area due to the presence of monkeys during our last visit,” said P. Lakshminarayana, a tourist from Hyderabad.

Top officials in the Tourism Department then hit upon the idea of getting langurs to scare away the other stray monkeys.

“We had taken up the issue with higher-ups in the Tourism Department who advised us to purchase a couple of langurs from Nuzivid area of Krishna district (in Andhra Pradesh) to counter the menace,” he said.

Monkeys have ever since been keeping away from the core area where the tourists relax and where the langurs have been roaming around.

However, the monkeys still populate the valley, where their numbers have grown in recent years. “The two temples are located half-a-kilometre down the valley, where taking up protection measures could be difficult,” he informed.

Stray monkeys

have prevented

free movement of tourists here, and

the langurs ‘deployed’ have managed to

scare them away

Since the temples of Ranganatha Swamy and Dattatreya Swamy were located in the valley near the waterfall, tourists hesitated to walk down to offer prayers to the presiding deities, Mr. Datta Kumar said. Particularly reluctant were women, children and the elderly. “My family found it difficult to move around in the area due to the presence of monkeys during our last visit,” said P. Lakshminarayana, a tourist from Hyderabad.

Top officials in the Tourism Department then hit upon the idea of getting langurs to scare away the other stray monkeys.

“We had taken up the issue with higher-ups in the Tourism Department who advised us to purchase a couple of langurs from Nuzivid area of Krishna district (in Andhra Pradesh) to counter the menace,” he said.

Monkeys have ever since been keeping away from the core area where the tourists relax and where the langurs have been roaming around.

However, the monkeys still populate the valley, where their numbers have grown in recent years. “The two temples are located half-a-kilometre down the valley, where taking up protection measures could be difficult,” he informed.

Stray monkeys have prevented free movement of tourists here, and the langurs ‘deployed’ have managed to scare them away