Panchayat secretary in Kothagudem puts on ‘gorilla’ costume to scare away monkeys

The idea worked out as the monkeys got scared of the 'gorilla' and ran away into the nearby forests.

Kothagudem: A gram panchayat secretary in the district has come up with a unique and innovative solution to address the human-monkey conflict that was plaguing her panchayat. The idea is now yielding good results.

Like several other villages and towns in the State, residents of Morampalli Banjar gram panchayat in Burgampahad mandal were in a dilemma with troops of monkeys moving around households, damaging plants, taking away eatables and also damaging crops in their farm fields.

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After many failed attempts to chase away the monkeys, they lodged a written complaint to the gram panchayat secretary Bendadi Bhavani, who started working to find a suitable and effective solution to address the problem. It was then that she stumbled upon an idea on YouTube.

She bought a gorilla costume online, made a gram panchayat staffer wear it and walk around the village and farm fields twice a day. The idea worked out as the monkeys got scared of the ‘gorilla’ and ran away into the nearby forests.

Speaking to Telangana Today, Bhavani said the idea was being implemented for the last one week and that it had proved effective much to the relief of the villagers. A majority of the monkeys have left the village, though a few were left here and there, she said.

The worker wearing the gorilla costume, accompanied by another staff, makes a sortie in the areas where monkeys gather, from 6 am to 10 am and again in the evening from 4 pm to 6 pm, to make sure that monkeys that left the village do not return.

Initially it was planned to hire monkey catchers or a skilled langur (Indian gray langur) handler as the presence of langurs was believed to scare away monkeys. But the idea was dropped as such efforts had proved ineffective in other places, she said.

A resident of the village, Bandari Mahesh, said the gram panchayat secretary’s idea of a gorilla costume has helped the villagers overcome the monkey menace.