Large gangs of out-of-control monkeys run wild in India's parliamentary estate

Delhi is home to tens of thousands of mischievous macaques, and so far all efforts to move them on have failed

Breaking in through windows, destroying important documents and harassing government officials, troops of foreign actors have invaded India’s seats of power, committing unspeakable acts on state property.

Monkeys have become such a menace across Delhi’s federal government properties that parliamentary authorities issued guidelines last month to MPs on the best way to handle a close encounter.

While strictly speaking native to the hilly forests of northern India, red-faced rhesus macaques have been forced to adapt to living alongside humans, as cities have encroached on their natural habitats.

The problem is particularly bad at government offices ringing the presidential palace, as well as the parliament building and defence ministry, which are located not far from the city’s Central Ridge forest reserve.

Macaques use Delhi’s tree-lined streets to swing between the buildings, damaging power lines in the process.

Most government employees brush off their presence, but clashes are also common, with monkeys known to steal people’s phones, lunches and other items.

“Very often they snatch food from people as they are walking, and sometimes they even tear files and documents by climbing in through the windows,” Ragini Sharma, a home ministry employee told Reuters.

“You do hear about them damaging property at night, but they don’t really cause any problems for us on the day staff,” a ministry of chemicals and fertilisers official who identified himself as Ajay told The Independent. “They are OK with us as long as we don’t disturb them.

“I’ve never had my lunch stolen, but I know people who have. You just have to be careful – if you have a banana or some fruit, you know they will try to take it.”

Municipal bodies estimate there are up to 40,000 monkeys living in Delhi, and while many solutions to avoid conflict with humans have been tried, none have really proved successful.

The city authorities have previously used larger black-faced langur monkeys to scare away the macaques. But this was banned in 2014 after animal rights activists protested against keeping the langurs captive. More elusive than macaques, they shy away from contact with humans in the wild.

The government does employ 40 “very talented” young men to pretend to be langurs, mimicking their barks and cries to scare the macaques away. It doesn’t work for long though, as the monkeys return as soon as the impressionists leave.

Efforts to move the animals to forests outside the capital are generally considered futile because the monkeys simply make their way back, unable to find food as easily as they can in the city.

It is still commonplace for the city’s mostly Hindu population to feed the macaques, thanks to their association with the monkey god Lord Hanuman.

Not giving the monkeys food is among the list of guidelines passed around parliamentarians ahead of the start of the winter session. It was issued in a circular from the Parliamentary Security Service.

It also warns against making “direct eye contact with monkeys”, or blocking the “path between a mother and her infant”.

If conflict is unavoidable, the circular recommends: “Do not ever hit any monkey. Keep hitting the ground with a big stick to make [the] monkey leave.”

The intractable monkey crisis often receives attention in the Indian media, and the parliamentary secretariat appears to have been rankled by the coverage its guidelines have received. Another circular, issued three days later, reminded parliamentary officers of the need to seek permission before issuing circulars and the anti-monkey notice has been taken offline.

For now, at least, it looks like the monkeys are winning.