VILLUPURAM: A monkey, which attacked a one-and-half-year-old girl who was sleeping in her house at Annai Nagar near Auroville in June, has apparently reappeared and bitten the same child again raising further concerns of simian menace in the area. Forest Department officials said the animal had disappeared after the attack on the girl and they had called off the hunt for it.
Nearly 500 families residing in Royapettai in Tamil Nadu and Annai Nagar in Puducherry region near Auroville Township are living in fear after the monkey was spotted in the villages recently. On Friday, the monkey appeared at the hut of a person called Kamalakannan in Annai Nagar. He works as a construction labourer in Chennai. At the time of the incident, his wife was cooking and the child was playing in another portion of the hut. The monkey apparently entered through a gap in the wall.
“Hearing my child’s cry, my wife went to the room and found the monkey biting the child. At once, she tried to rescue the child, but the animal bit her again. After a long struggle, she rescued the child and fled from the hut,” said Kamalakannan. He added that his wife took the child to the Puducherry Government Hospital for treatment. The child required 12 sutures to treat her injuries, said Kamalakannan. Irate villagers said they will capture the monkey dead or alive, if the Forest Department fails to do so. An official from the Tindivanam forest department range office said they restarted the hunt for the monkey on Monday and promised to capture it before it attacked others.
A forest department source said they gave up their decision to capture the monkey by setting up a ‘honey’ trap as animal lovers opposed it.