Ahead of the G20 Summit in Delhi, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has come up with a unique way to keep the monkeys of the capital at bay. Large Langur cutouts have been placed in various places of the city and trained personnel good at mimicking their sound will also be deployed to prevent any mishap during the G20 Summit in Delhi.The guests of the G20 Summit will be welcomed by multiple life-like Lungur posters to help prevent any accidents related to monkeys on their visit to the capital. Forty trained personnel will also be stationed near these posters who are skilled in vocalizations of grey langurs.NDMCs say on Langur cut-outsNDMC vice-chairman Satish Upadhyay noted that these are temporary steps that are taken in coordination with the Delhi forest department to ensure that monkeys remain inside the Ridge and do not cause disruptions to the motorcades of dignitaries.“The langur cut-outs have been put up on an experimental basis, and we will have to see how much actual impact they have on the monkey density. We also have trained people who are experts in making sounds similar to Langurs. They will be deployed at various sites across New Delhi to keep monkeys in check,” Upadhyay said.Will Langur posters be effective However, many specialists are doubtful of these measures and think that such initiatives are not enough to keep the monkeys away. A broader investigation and approach should be taken on Delhis persistent monkey problem. There has not been a proper survey on the monkey population of the city till now there have been many instances of monkey attacks across the city.Despite that, the NDMC has not taken the proper initiative to transfer the monkeys to sanctuaries and deploy m,onkey catchers to catch them and instead have taken the approach of cut-out Langur posters.A worker of the Delhi Development Authority, Faiyaz Khudsa who oversees the biodiversity parks mentioned that the initiative of Langur posters might not yield the desired result as movement is a critical factor and cannot be supervised all the time.“Even if such an experiment is being undertaken, movement is a critical factor, and stationary cut-outs may not help. They should put up these cut-outs in large numbers as multiple replications will be needed to ascertain the impact,” Khudsar said.
