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No monkey business in bird paradise

Sunny Sebastian

In a crackdown on monkeys, who are over indulgent on birds' eggs, the Park authorities caught as many as 60 simians and packed them off to ravines.

JAIPUR: Monkeys have no business in a bird paradise. Or that is what the management of the celebrated bird sanctuary, Keoladeo Ghana National Park near Bharatpur in Rajasthan, thinks.

In a crackdown on monkeys who were rather over indulgent on birds' eggs, the Park authorities caught as many as 60 simians on Wednesday. They were kept in small cages -- much to the chagrin of animal lovers -- before transporting them to the ravines in the neighbouring Dholpur district. This season's target is to catch 300 monkeys, says A.C.A Arun Prasad, Park director.

"This is breeding season for birds in the Park. We cannot allow monkeys to have a free run,'' Mr. Prasad notes. The previous year also the Park authorities had caught as many as 100 Red monkeys (Rhesus macaque) and packed them off to the ravines, a favourite dumping spot for Keoladeo's surplus fauna, including the feral cows.

The 29 sq km Park has a few hundreds of Rhesus monkeys whose presence is posing a threat to the heronry now in the process of breeding. "Monkeys are fast breeders and they multiply in numbers quickly. Being a bird sanctuary there are no major predators for the primates in Keoladeo,'' Mr.Prasad notes. During the past 3-4 years over 700 monkeys were caught and moved out of the K.N.Park.

The simians, omnipresent in the Park, have a double advantage when it comes to egg lifting/smashing as they can climb the trees and swim as well.

No bird can escape the monkey business as the birds which make nests on tree branches and those lay eggs in the grass are equally vulnerable to their raids.

The Park authorities are seemingly extra cautious this season as after a gap the sanctuary, a world heritage site, is having good breeding--thanks to the availability of water.

"If you don't restrain the monkeys the heronry is out. And if there is no breeding of heronry we have to take the blame for not creating conducive atmosphere for birds to breed,'' Mr.Prasad laments.

The Park authorities are still grappling with the problem of its cheetal (spotted deer) population playing truant in the wake of continuous rainfall a fortnight back. As on last count (till August 10) out of the 152 cheetals found wandering in the villages neighbouring the Park, 99 could be brought back. Of the remaining, 32 cheetals were found dead while 21 of them died during transportation.

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