CISF jawans learning to use ‘gulels’ to tackle monkey menace at Taj Mahal

The CISF personnel deployed at the Taj Mahal here are now training to use a novel weapon, catapults, to tackle the monkey menace there.

Central Industrial Security Force Commandant Braj Bhushan Singh told PTI that the constables are being trained to use ‘gulels’ (catapults) to ward off monkeys from attacking and biting tourists.

“The monkeys have been posing a huge problem here. Many tourists have been injured in monkey attacks. Our jawans are being trained to use catapults to shoo them away,” he said.

A local wildlife activist, armed with the provisions of the Wildlife Act, 1972, however, has come to simians’ defence.

As per the Act, monkeys are protected species and no physical harm can be inflicted on them, said activist Shravan Kumar Singh.

Ved Gautam, a tourist guide, however, said, “We have seen some CISF jawans with catapults, but they have neither harmed monkeys nor used stones to target them.” Agra has been in news due to the simian menace over the last six months.

“The hospitals here almost daily receive at least one serious case of monkey attack. The municipal corporation has failed to find a solution to this menace,” said Mukesh Jain, a functionary of the Satyamev Jayate Trust, that had financially supported several programmes to sterilise monkeys and transfer them to forests.

On November 12 last year, a monkey snatched a 12-day-old infant from the arms of his mother and killed the baby on the outskirts of Agra.

Just days later, monkeys were blamed for the death of a 58-year-old woman.

On November 22, an Italian tourist was attacked by a monkey near the western gate of Taj Mahal