14 September,2016 06:46 AM IST | | Varun Singh and Ranjeet Jadhav
Students of IIT-B and residents of a Kandivli society are plagued by the same monkey issue, but forest department is yet to take any substantial action
A monkey in an IIT-B corridor is a regular sighting Pic/Insight, IIT-B
Hostel residents of IIT-Bombay and those of Lokhandwala, Kandivli, are tired of being made monkeys of. The in-house magazine of IIT-B - Insight - has reorted four hostels have been plagued by monkey menace. The primates pillage locked rooms and scurry away with electronic gadgets. In Kandivli a single monkey is holding residents of a housing society prisoner since September 10. According to Insight, hostels 3, 5, 7 and 9 are affected by 10 to 15 monkeys.
"If we forget to lock our room, they ruin clothes and valuables. They even sleep on the beds," the article states.
Repeated complaints to the institution's maintenance department have allegedly been ignored. "...the sole reply has been âdon't feed the monkeys'," says the article.
The general secretary of hostel 5 has now submitted an application to the BMC to find a solution to the menace. "Bursting crackers in wings has been recommended as a temporary solution," the article says.
A senior official from IIT-B said forest officials are called in to rescue monkeys "as and when the need arises".
The Kandivli offender
Residents of NG Suncity Phase II in Kandivli Lokhandwala claim that over the last four days, a monkey keeps entering homes and climbing rafters as high as the 14th floor to steal food from refrigerators.
"Children are scared. The monkey has even charged at residents several times in the last four days," said Durgesh Wagale, a resident.
"We have sought help from SGNP and Thane FD, but in vain," said Manoj Nigam, chairman of NG Suncity Phase II. Residents said the department claims it has more than 50 calls to rescue monkeys from the eastern suburbs to be addressed before theirs.
Forest department says
Assistant Conservator of Forest, SJ Lachake, said, "Our team takes the best possible efforts to attend to monkey rescue calls. People should understand it is not possible to attend to each call immediately. I have instructed my staff to look into the issue."
