Humour
So, This is Evolution
by VRINDA SHARMA
The Punjab government has decided to set up an ultra-modern facility to rehabilitate and teach manners to bad monkeys.
The first-of-its-kind monkey school will provide inmates with medical care and good-behaviour training.
"In addition to veterinary doctors, the centre will have experts and it would be a sort of good manners school for the monkeys," said a senior official of the Punjab Wildlife Department, on Friday.
"There have been several cases of monkey bites and the problem has reached such an alarming situation that every week there are one or two cases of monkey biting from across the district. This is why we have decided to build a rehabilitation centre ... in Patiala. This will be the first such centre in the State," Chief Wildlife Warden of Punjab, R.K. Luna said. [Yes, this is his real name.]
According to Mr. Luna, the monkey population has reached 50,000 in the State and around 10,000 in Patiala. The aim is to target monkeys that pose a serious threat to people in Punjab, as the animals move into towns and cities looking for food. They usually create havoc by chasing and attacking residents, injuring them and snatching their belongings.
Jasmer Singh, DFO Wildlife, Patiala, said: "Once the centre is functional, forest officials in Punjab will be able to catch monkeys from residential areas and send them across so that they can be taught to be decent and live socially with other monkeys."
Officials accuse them of a variety of bad behaviour, from terrorizing children to destroying property.
　
July 29, 2009
Conversation about this article
1: Harinder (Bangalore, India), July 29, 2009, 10:41 AM.
This is a very nice way to deal with the problem. I suggest some other schools. The Punjab government can start schools, for example, to teach: (a)Snakes not to bite; (b)Tigers not to kill; and 3) Mosquitos not to spread malaria. After all, Man is the master of the universe, isn't he?
2: Satinder Gill (Khanna, Punjab), July 29, 2009, 11:28 AM.
Well said, Harinder! "Let's begin in our own backyard" is a message I'd like to pass to the State government. Take the initiative to teach people first. The general behaviour of people here in India is, to say the least, appalling. We lack basic sense and this extends to every area. Men use every place under the sky as their toilets. People do not know how to line up in public places, even in banks. Being kind and polite is considered old-fashioned. People will jostle to get ahead in public and if that means crushing someone in their way, so be it. There is scant regard for others. The list goes on and on. Let's teach ourselves first ... the monkeys can wait!
3: Geeta (U.K.), July 30, 2009, 4:06 PM.
This is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of, why are they wasting money on things like this. There are people in India who need to be taught manners, that's where the government should start first. People don't have respect for one another. They should spend money on the things that are direly needed by the people of India - like education, water, electricity, drug addiction, corruption, to to name a few.
4: Jasbir Singh Sethi (Houston, Texas, U.S.A.), August 10, 2009, 10:21 AM.
Congratulations to the Punjab Government. This is the first time that "Veterans of Ram Chander ji's Army" are being taken care of. But watch out, the whole project is under the minutest scrutiny. Any infraction will bring on the wrath of the "Ram Janam Bhumi Brigade."