One monkey to another
KR Bharti
Amonkey picking lice of a fellow monkey at the Ridge, Shimla, said, ‘Achhe din might have come for humans but we monkeys, for sure, have fallen on bure din .’
The bewildered monkey asked how. ‘Haven’t you heard, we have been declared vermin in Shimla and 39 other tehsils of the state? They say we have turned too obnoxious to be tolerated. We steal, snatch, threaten and bite. The protection granted to us under the Wildlife Protection Act has been withdrawn.’
‘So they are bent upon culling us all!’
‘Not all, only the most obnoxious ones.’
‘But how will they identify who is more dangerous? Anyone can turn violent depending upon the circumstances.’
‘Perhaps, they will track us.’
‘Humans ransacked our habitats and put us on the road. What hypocrisy! Feed with one hand and shoot with the other.’
‘Has anyone supported our cause? Earlier, the government had decided to shoot us selectively, but some NGOs obtained a stay.’
‘The stay continues but the government is seeking its vacation. Some animal activists are taking up for us, but by and large, people are against us.’
‘The sterilisation drive is already on and over a lakh have been neutered so far, reducing our number drastically. What more do they want?’
‘They want to force us back to the jungles. They would replenish the forests with fruit-bearing bushes and trees.’
‘We shall not be safe there, too. Lions, tigers, leopards, hyenas will kill us for food.’
‘But at least we will become a part of the food chain. It is better to die for a cause.’
‘But would our kids be able to survive? They were born and brought up near human settlements.’
‘They will learn gradually. Necessity is the mother of invention.’
‘Have we alone been declared vermin?’
‘No, the wild boar in Uttarakhand and the neel gai in Bihar are also vermin now. But in Himachal, the axe will fall only on us.’
‘No other animal can claim better lineage... we are the descendents of Ram bhakt Hanuman. Man also traces his origin to us.’
‘But now he treats himself a class apart and dismisses us as brute.’
‘But don’t you think he is more brutal than us? Like him, we don’t burn our brides for dowry and kill our daughters in the womb.’
‘I agree. We eat only to live and never indulge in hoarding as man does. We have a right to live. Their religious books also say that if a hungry man steals food, it is no crime. He should follow the policy of live and let live.’
‘Yes, but however strong your arguments might be, they would hardly stand when man is the prosecutor and also the judge.’
