ADILABAD: It is a casual day in a village bordering the forests of Adilabad. A kitchen window is left open for a moment. By the time someone returns, a monkey has already leapt in, grabbed fruit from the table and disappeared across the rooftops.
Scenes like these have become common across several villages in the erstwhile Adilabad district. Residents say monkeys that once stayed largely within forests are now moving deeper into human settlements.
The shift did not happen overnight. At Kuntala waterfalls and several temples in the region, feeding monkeys has long been a common practice. Visitors routinely offer bananas, rice, pulses, samosas and other food items. Over time, wildlife researchers say, the animals have learned that food is more easily available in human settlements than in the forest.
“Earlier, one could see two or three monkeys near temples. Now they are entering villages and towns because people feed them regularly,” wildlife researcher and HYTICOS coordinator Dr Venkat Anagandhula told TNIE. Easy availability of food has reduced the animals’ dependence on forests, he says.
The result is all too visible in village streets and homes.
Ramesh Veeresham of Jannaram mandal says the change has been dramatic. “The monkey population has increased. They rarely go back to the forest now.
They enter houses and premises, snatch food from children and grab edible items kept outside. In some areas, people even hesitate to remain outdoors for long because of repeated monkey activity,” he said. Locals say the number of monkeys has risen sharply in recent months, forcing families to keep doors and windows shut as the animals frequently enter homes in search of food.
Researchers say the population rise is not just behavioural — it is biological. With a steady and predictable food supply from human sources, survival and breeding rates among monkeys have improved significantly, leading to rapid population growth. Interestingly, during the Covid-19 lockdown, when public movement stopped and feeding declined, monkeys largely remained inside forest areas and were rarely seen in villages or along roads.
Authorities are attempting to manage the problem, though not without difficulty.
Forest officials and local bodies capture monkeys and shift them to a rescue and rehabilitation centre in Chincholi in Sarangapur of Nirmal district, where vets sterilise them.
Officials say between 1,000 and 1,200 monkeys are brought to the centre every month. However, nearly 60% of them are sub-adults or pregnant females and cannot undergo sterilisation. Only the remaining 40% can be sterilised.
Even this effort faces logistical hurdles. Several sarpanches say gram panchayats often lack funds required to capture monkeys and transport them to the centre. Some sarpanches have reportedly spent from their own pockets to manage the problem.
In a few places, unusual methods have been tried. Some gram panchayat representatives have worn bear masks and moved through villages in an attempt to scare the monkeys away. During GP elections, the monkey menace was a major campaign issue.
Meanwhile, researchers warn that the problem could escalate. In some areas, monkeys have begun attacking people, raising concerns about injuries and the potential spread of diseases such as rabies.
Forest officials have begun discouraging roadside feeding of monkeys, saying the practice has contributed significantly to their growing presence in villages. In Mancherial district, authorities recently imposed penalties on people feeding monkeys along roads.
Yet the bigger question remains unresolved.
As monkey numbers continue to rise, can the problem be handled simply by discouraging feeding or are communities in the region slowly entering a new phase of living side by side with wildlife that no longer sees the forest as its only home?