City officials in India have hired a team of animal impersonators to frighten marauding macaque monkeys away from G20 summit venues.
The so-called ‘monkey wallahs’ can impersonate the wailing calls of aggressive and larger grey langur primates perfectly.
Summit organisers in New Delhi hope the 40 mimics – and large cutouts of langurs – will keep troops of macaques away from conference venues and hotels.
Hungry macaques are notorious for their mass raids on homes and hotels across India as they scavenge for easy pickings.
They have – reported local media – begun eating the floral displays going up outside summit hotels.
India will play host to hundreds of VIPs, political leaders and aides when they host the meeting of G20 leaders on September 9th and 10th.
Government officials are anxious not to have the summit turn into a farce after assuming the G20 presidency last year.
Grey langurs are known to be aggressive territorial primates and organisers hope the mimics will keep the macaques at bay.
Satish Upadhyay – vice chairman of New Delhi Municipal Council – said on 30th August: “We obviously can’t remove them from the natural habitat, so we deployed a team of monkey men who specialised in being able to scare them away without causing any long-term harm.”
He said one monkey man would be stationed at each hotel where the delegates will be staying and other summit venues.
