Residents in Aurangabad's district live in constant fear. Nearly 300 monkeys have been attacking residents and causing damage to their homes and crops. According to locals, monkeys have been living in Upla village for a long time. However, their attacks have increased over the last few months due to shortage of monkey catcher and equipments.
A senior official from the forest department told monkey catcher near me that no complaints had been received about monkeys in the village since they were first established. The village is located in Sillod Taluka and has approximately 1,600 inhabitants. However, most residents are forced to live indoors due to the monkey threat. The apes attack the village by attacking the children and women, and picking up chapattis (flat bread), they enter the homes of the residents. A village woman claimed that she sustained severe injuries from a monkey attack on her two years ago.
Another resident stated, "Many farmers have lost their crops because of the monkey gang, which moves in large groups." The village is unsafe for people to walk around. Meerabai Suradkar, Upla's village head, said that monkeys have lived in the village for several years. Their number has increased and they are now a nuisance. Nearly 300 monkeys live in the village. She said that they have destroyed many homes' roofs." She answered the question, "There's no forest nearby, but there's a few hills about 20-30km from here."
According to another local, monkeys were eating maize and cotton at the farms and have caused damage to several crops. "They also damaged vehicles." He said that many of the houses have had their roofs ripped off.
The village woman claimed that the monkeys steal her chapattis while she is carrying them for her family who are working on their farm. She added, "If they try to drive them off, they attack us." A forest department official responded to our inquiry, saying that so far, there had been no complaint regarding monkeys living in the Upla village. We will investigate any complaint we receive.
