'Most wanted' monkey with £200 bounty on its head caught after 2 weeks of terror
A monkey with a £200 bounty on its head after being blamed for 20 attacks on people has been caught in India after two weeks of terror.
The primate was on the run for a fortnight before being finally captured in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday.
A reward of ₹21,000 (£200) had been posted by fed-up officials and residents to end the monkey's reign of terror.
Wildlife experts used a drone to find the monkey and shot it with a tranquiliser dart before putting the animal in a cage.
The wild animal had reportedly attacked at least 20 people including eight children.
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Officials said that it would often perch on the roofs of homes and on windowsills apparently looking for targets. Many of those who were attacked ended up with deep gashes requiring stitches.
The monkey was caught by wildlife officials in the central Indian state of Madhya PradeshLocal official Vinod Sahu said: "The municipality did not have the means to catch that monkey."We reached out to the District Collector and with his help, called in a rescue team of the forest department from Ujjain.
"The municipality staff and local residents helped them, but it still took four hours to catch the monkey."
He added: "We had offered a cash prize of INR 21,000 for catching the monkey. We will give it to the animal rescue team now."
Forestry officer Gaurav Gupta said that the local team in Rajgarh had tried to catch the monkey for the past two weeks without success.
He said: "We reached out to special teams in several districts. As soon as the Ujjain team was available, they rushed to Rajgarh and after a four-hour operation, we caught the monkey."
The officer added: "Most probably, it will be released in a dense forest area so that it cannot harm people."
In December 2021, two monkeys that allegedly killed hundreds of puppies were captured in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Villagers in Lavool claimed the monkeys were carrying out "revenge killings" after dogs killed an infant monkey.
A person living in the area said: "In the last two to three months, there have been incidents where the langurs roaming in the area would catch puppies and take them to a place with considerable height to throw them from there. At least 250 dogs have been killed so far."
The monkeys reportedly left puppies on roofs and in trees where they would die from lack of food and water, and in other incidents, they would be thrown down and killed.
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A local official said: "This [the killing of an infant monkey by dogs] is said to have enraged the monkeys who in retaliation are killing the puppies of dogs as per local residents.
"But we do not have any proof to back up this theory. It's animal behaviour and we cannot ascertain why they are behaving like this."
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