Cutouts of langurs have been placed in several parts of New Delhi to keep the rhesus monkeys at bay during the G20 Summit scheduled to take place next week.
Rhesus monkeys are considered a menace in several areas of the city where they run across the busiest roads without warning and also end up attacking pedestrians.
This is not the first time langurs have been used as a tool to resolve the monkey problem during a major international event. Live langurs were rented and placed on space when the Commonwealth Games were held in Delhi in 2010.
The langurs who are bigger primates with black faces are often used in the national capital to scare away monkeys, the officials said.
"The langur cut-outs have been put up and we will have to see how much actual impact they have on the monkeys as monkeys are fearful of langurs. The cutouts have been installed near important locations like Sardar Patel Marg and Shastri Bhawan, as monkeys get scared and return to their natural habitat. Monkeys cannot be displaced, harmed or hit," Satish Upadhyay, the vice-chairperson of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) said.
He informed that several trained people mock their sounds to create sounds similar to langurs have been deployed in various places in Delhi to keep a check on the movement of the monkeys.
"We cannot harm them or remove them (the monkeys), our only option is to confine them to their (forested) areas," Upadhyay said.
The authority has also started providing food to monkeys in forested areas to make sure they do not roam around the areas where the events will take place.
"We started placing these cutouts in the city over the last one week and are already seeing a positive impact. Monkeys have stopped going to the areas where these are present," Upadhyay said.
The Group of Twenty (G20) comprises 19 countries - Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, US, UK and the European Union.
India has invited Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain and UAE as guest countries for the mega event.
The 18th G20 Heads of State and Government Summit in New Delhi will be a culmination of all the G20 processes and meetings held throughout the year among ministers, senior officials, and civil societies. A G20 Leaders’ Declaration will be adopted at the conclusion of the New Delhi Summit, stating Leaders’ commitment towards the priorities discussed and agreed upon during the respective ministerial and working group meetings.
(With ANI inputs)
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