A special thing about living in India is having animals (some wild, some domesticated) being a part of your daily life even if you live in a well developed city. We have cows and buffaloes that act as traffic regulators. Stray dogs ofcourse are always around. You get to see horses regularly during wedding seasons especially. Elephants sometimes and Monkeys many times. If you happen to travel to Jaipur from Delhi then you get to see Camels as well.
Monkeys are found in plenty in Gurgaon. Especially in condominiums and ours is no exception. We have a few Monkey families living in the space between our complex and the buildings at the back. They enter our condo complex at will and sometimes steal food and at other times just frolick around.
Nearly 12 years back, we had a huge monkey that came to our balcony. He ate up the single cob of corn that was growing in a pot. That was the end of our growing anything edible 😁. We have heard of a single Monkey entering into apartments and eating up the food on the dining table. These are small animals, our nearest animal kingdom relatives.
There was a huge gang of nearly 9 Monkeys jumping over cars etc a week back. I was able to click a few pics.
As the security guards tried to shoo them off, most of them ran away but just one large monkey was hiding in one of the trees. He then sauntered off later … with absolutely no fear of humans.
While it’s fun taking pics from a distance, sometimes, these Monkeys can get aggressive. They scratch and bite, steal eatables and generally behave badly. There is a whole documentary about the Monkeys living in the markets of Jaipur on National Geographic.
Anyway, mostly it’s fun to watch them.
We humans need to seriously think about our population. The rate at which our population is increasing, the natural habitat of all the other animals that we share this Earth with are depleting. No wonder they try and adapt to living “with” us … sometimes that works out but many times, the animals lose.
B and K,
Great post. It tells me a lot about what modern-day life is like in India, from a personal, human perspective.
I agree human beings are crowding wild animals out from the land, and human pollution is making the seas unfit, too, for other species.
It seems the whole planet is out of balance, because of human disrespect for each other and for the planet which sustains all life.
I’m glad you and other compatible souls continue to practice activity that shows human activity could become a blessing rather than a curse on nature.
Thanks Katharine. I have another post coming up which is on plastics – a topic close to both our hearts. Somehow many people across the globe seem uninterested, not just unaware of the disastrous consequences of plastic usage. 🙁
Habitat loss for other animals is hardly a priority for humans. We are running a race to build the 3rd, 4th and 5th homes for ourselves not realising we can’t live in all of them at the same time anyway. 😔.
B,
I just found this response. We do share concerns about plastics, as well as concerns about habitat loss, and these are intricately interrelated. I believe you will like Dr. Bramhall’s blog. She also has posted a lot about the pharmaceutical, agricultural, and chemical industries. She’s a transplant from the US to New Zealand.