Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi: A New Type of Security Being Used for the Games
Delhi has had a monkey problem for a long time; in the past, they have entered peoples’ homes, harassed people in parks and even entered the Prime Minister’s office. With the Commonwealth Games about to start in a few days time and over 7000 athletes and thousands of tourists about to descend upon the city, the monkey problem will become another massive headache for the organisers of the games. A new solution is being used though; monkey security guards. Langur monkeys, that are bigger and more ferocious than regular monkeys, are being used to repel the pests away from the venues and athletes village. We will have to wait and see if the strategy works in ridding the Games of this new issue.
Like most big cities of the world with huge populations, Delhi faces the usual problems. Traffic, pollution and overcrowding are all issues, but it also faces a unique problem; monkeys. The problem stems from the fact that India’s majority Hindu population considers the monkeys sacred and so the government is not allowed to cull them in order to bring their numbers down to a manageable level. The problem was not so widespread in the past and humans and monkeys coexisted peacefully for many years until their numbers started to dramatically increase. With the rising numbers, the monkey population also started to get aggressive and started to become urbanised. They attacked people for food and devout Hindus would feed them bananas and peanuts. This led to dangerous wild monkeys becoming dependant on humans for food and it became a huge problem.
A lot of solutions have been proposed to deal with the monkey problem; the most logical and scientific one was proposed by one of Delhi’s leading primatologists. The idea was to sterilise a large portion of adult male monkeys and create a sanctuary for them in an enclosed space. Over time, the population would naturally decrease to a manageable level and they would be away from the city and its residents.
What the Indian government decided to do though was to round up the monkeys and stick them in cages. They even tried to release them into the wild and also tried to push them onto other cities. These techniques did not work and so they came up with another idea. They decided to employ companies to bring Langur monkeys into the city to help deal with the problem. The smaller monkeys are very scared of the larger more ferocious Langurs and they do a good job of keeping the smaller monkeys away from residential areas and office buildings. This was done in 2006 but it has not been popular among scientists. They claim it is simply covering up the problem and not finding a permanent solution to it.
This same technique is being used again, as athletes and tourists flock to Delhi for the start of the Commonwealth Games. The Games have had their image severely tarnished in the last few weeks from numerous problems such as the athletes’ village being unfit for humans, to a collapsing footbridge, to now a monkey problem. They have tried to get everything back on track and they hope the Langurs can at least clear up the monkey problem for the Games.
Using the Langurs is an interesting strategy, because the smaller monkeys do not enter any area where a Langur is placed. However, this is an age old common solution to a problem; train and utilise a fighting force made up of the same people you are fighting. The issue with using Langurs is that even though they have special handlers who have trained them and are employed to oversee what the monkeys do, there is always the fear that a Langur can become aggressive and attack a foreign athlete or a tourist. Then the whole scheme would have backfired and an already tarnished event will get more tarnished. At least the organisers are trying to do something about the problem and hopefully nothing untoward will happen.
Sports fans around the world are hoping that Delhi can get its problems sorted out and put on a great event. The image of the whole country and the economic future of the city depend on these Games. It will be revealed in the next few weeks how successful the organisers were at meeting their targets.
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