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| Title |
Control of monkeys in coconut |
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Red faced monkey is a serious pest and is a matter of concern in the coconut growing region of Tumkur district in Karnataka. These monkeys usually raid orchards in groups. They pluck far more coconuts than they can eat and play with them tossing them all around in the orchard. Killing the monkeys is forbidden by tradition and hence the only way to tackle them is to drive out the marauders from the orchards.
Here we list two innovative methods devised by local farmers.
(a) Eatables like bananas, dried coconut kernel, groundnuts, jaggery etc., which the monkeys are fond of are neatly packed into tidy parcels and left in the orchard where the monkeys can spot them. Generally, the monkey troupe is led by a hefty and healthy monkey. The moment the leader spies a packet of goodies, he opens it and has a hearty repast; all others in the troupe copy him and do likewise. The farmer continues to bait them for several days and all the while also changes the quality of the food packet.
Once the monkeys are lulled into security, the farmer springs his surprise; he keeps a dead snake in the packet along with the eatables. When the leader of the group as usual opens the packet and starts eating he is startled at finding the dead snake and starts yelling with fright. The screaming monkey begins to run away from the orchard but being too scared even to drop the snake, he continues to hold the dead snake by its hands. Even after having run four to five kilometers the monkey can still be found clutching the snake. Thus scared out of their wits, the troupe will not return to the orchard for a couple of months at least.
(b) The farmer uses cage made up of either arecanut tree stems or iron mesh and traps a monkey by keeping a food bait in it. A monkey once trapped struggles to free itself but gets exhausted after a few days. The farmer catches the subdued and worn out animal - for it is then easy to handle - and wraps a dry goat skin around its waist and secures it by stitching it at the back. The monkey is then set free in the orchard. The goat skin garb gives the monkey a frightful appearance. When it approaches other monkeys, they may either shun the weird looking animal or even pick a fight with it. In the process the entire group gets scattered leaving the spooky goat skin wrapped monkey alone in the orchard. Thus spurned, the skin wrapped monkey roams around in the orchard for a few days and goes its way. |
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee, 6(3):9, 1995 |
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(Hittalagida-kannada version of honey bee,Ed-T. N. Prakash) |
