Karnataka - Bidar   

People still love to feed langurs in Bidar

BIDAR: Feeding langurs has been a practice in Bidar district for a long.The practice began when a ‘firman’ was issued by Nawab Nasir-ud-Daula Bahadur (1829-57). The Nawab sanctioned a handsome grant for the maintenance of the monkeys of Bidar. During those days, they were fed under a huge banyan tree at the gateway of the Bidar fort. People and monkeys have co-existed peacefully for a long time.

As the langurs lose more and more of their natural habitat, it has created food scarcity leading to a steady decline in their numbers.

Although the area around the cave temple Narasimha Zarni has been reduced to thin forest cover making it difficult for the monkeys to find food and proper shelter in the wild, there are a good number of them in the surrounding areas. Devotees regularly offer them coconuts, biscuits, grains, bananas, vegetables and bread.

Muralisharrao Pathak, a priest at the temple, said that the langurs did not trouble devotees visiting the temple.

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