Concern about Central Vista 'lions' is fine; what about its homeless monkeys?
Tribes of monkeys, who have taken shelter in and around the Parliament complex for years, have lost their habitat due to the expansion of the Parliament building; neither lawmakers, nor activists seem to be concerned about it
The countenance and mood of the foursome lion-figure sculpted to adorn the new Parliament complex have caused quite a buzz throughout Delhi and well beyond its confines.
Yet, another wild tribe actually inhabiting the Central Vista for long appears to be far from being amused by the relentless tinkering that goes around Parliament.
Hordes of monkeys hovering around the legislature building find themselves to be quite a bit slighted by the frenzied fabrication that is on since months to build the new vista for over 700 parliamentarians though it is meant to house more in future.
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The size of the monkey brigade that is always on the prowl in the area is big. The shrill roar of huge construction cranes, earthmovers and concrete grinders has, indeed, robbed the primates of their peace.
Numerous trees felled
Scores of trees have also been cut to make space for the new buildings at the cost of what used to be monkeys’ home though often only fleetingly or intermittently. Obviously, it has been too much for the monkeys known to have a run of the area.
An indication to the monkeys’ wrath against this came some time ago, when a director-level official working in one of the ministries at Shastri Bhavan, near Parliament, arrived in another part of the Central Vista, using public transport, to join a social gathering of friends.
Asked where his car was, the officer remarked rather diffidently that his driver was bitten by a monkey at Shastri Bhavan and, thus, he (the officer) had to take a Metro ride after sending the driver for treatment.
The incident makes the monkeys’ plight giving way to anger quite clear.
The overall cases of monkey bites in Delhi have also been on the rise. In 2018 about 950 people were bitten by monkeys in the city. Through the last year the monkey bite cases in the national capital rose to about 1,800 or so. The MPs and bureaucrats living in what once used to be Delhi’s coveted ‘Imperial Zone’ are also among those who complain of trouble that the simians often create.
High Court intervention
The Delhi High Court too has intervened in the past in view of the monkey menace. The court ordered catching and relocating monkeys to Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary in the Aravalis on Delhi’s southern borders with Haryana.
But this could hardly take off because of the two-year long COVID-19 pandemic.
At times, the commonly found Rhesus macaque species of monkeys were tried to be controlled by bringing in Gray Langurs to scare them away. But the Environment Ministry banned this as besetting one wild species against the other couldn’t find favour among the ministry officials amid objections raised by animal rights activists.
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Yet, no activists appear to be coming forward this time to assess and point out how monkeys are getting impacted by the construction of new Parliament building; and if there are any, their views are not known. At best monkeys roaming or hopping around from one tree to the other near Parliament are thought to be strays with no clear way yet being found to deal with them.
Mythological significance
Strangely, this is so when monkeys have quite a bit of mythological significance. They are thought to carry a reflection with them of the monkey-god, Hanuman. They are revered and often fed by the devotees visiting temples where monkeys often go for food.
Yet, around Parliament no such reverence is being shown to the monkeys by either the lawmakers or ministry mandarins. These higher ups often try to keep themselves safe by asking their lower-rung staffers to shoo away the monkeys whenever they see them. This is how a daily conflict between man and the beast has been going on for years in Delhi’s Central Vista with no end in sight.
The current spree of construction for the new Parliament building has only aggravated this. It has greatly reduced, at least for the time being, the very size of what for long used to be monkeys’ virtual habitat, stretching over both Parliament and other government buildings around it.
Among other reasons for constructing a new Parliament building is the likely delimitation of parliamentary constituencies in a few years’ time from now and a possible hike in the strength or numbers of MPs.
Visibly perturbed
This may make the old building, built during the British rule, fall short of space for the MPs. But the room for monkeys near Parliament is clearly getting restricted and they look to be visibly perturbed about it.
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Yet, nobody is either moved, nor even appears to be thinking about the agony that the poor tribe of monkeys is currently grappling with.
This is in sharp contrast to the debate over the wrathful statue of lions atop the new Parliament building. The statue is said to be a poor copy of the quite sober-looking lions’ statue built in times of by emperor Ashoka at Sarnath, near Varanasi, which is today used as nation’s emblem.
