Rampaging gray langur terrorises a village in Ambala

From clambering up moving vehicles to stealing food from kitchens at will and attacking kids playing in the open, the long-tailed mischief maker has single-handedly disrupted normal life in the area.

Hina Bakshi, a village resident, said: “The langur has become a menace in our village. The animal has damaged around a dozen four-wheelers. A similar number of two-wheeler riders have been injured as the baboon occasionally takes to pushing moving vehicles. We do not know from where it came to our village, but it has no fear of humans. Children are the most vulnerable to attacks. We cannot leave our kids to play in the open even inside our homes.”

Panchkula-resident Archana Prashar, who had gone to the village to attend a relative’s last rites, recalled an incident where she was confined to her car for with the animal sitting on its roof and refusing to leave.

Meanwhile, all efforts to get rid of the langur have come a cropper. In one desperate bid, the animal was driven 25-km out of the village after it climbed on a car’s roof, but it was returned bully inhabitants.

“The langur jumped on the roof of a car. The car’s driver did not stop and took the animal around 25-km outside the village. But the animal was back in the village even before the driver made it back. The villagers have now urged the wildlife personnel from Ambala division to rescue the animal but all in vain. It is a male langur,” Chander Pal, another village resident, said.

The gray langur is a Schedule-1 protected animal under Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (APCCF), M L Rajvanshi, said, “The gray langur is not a solitary animal. It might have strayed from its group and reached the village, which is situated in the Shivalik foothills. We will rescue it. I have instructed the area wildlife personnel to do what is needed. The langur is Schedule-1 protected animal under the Wildlife Protection Act. ”