Amravati: Remember the German folk tale Pied Piper of Hamelin who used music from his flute to lure rats away? Back home in Maharashtra, a few siblings from a family are doing a similar act - not with rats but monkeys, armed with a foolproof plan. The brothers are catching the simians, who are raiding croplands in large groups causing loss to the harvest and farmers. These animals are fed, caged and released in the wild.
Meet Samadhan Giri and his brothers, who recently caught 62 monkeys in Amravati’s Anjangaon Bari area in a 30-minute exercise. Turning the farmlands into their play zone, the brigade was having the best time of their lives - ravaging crops, eating ripened fruits from trees and jumping on the roofs of the houses, leaving the farmers at their wit’s end when Samadhan along with his brothers Sandeep and Krishna, reached the fields.
For the siblings, the 30-minute act it was nothing great, for, the family has been catching and relocating monkeys since the days of yore. Their grandfather and great grand grandfathers were experts and the present-day Giri brothers have perfected it.
The siblings did not learn the tactic through a training manual, rather it came naturally to them. Samadhan began catching monkeys when he was ten years old. He moved around places with his family and learnt the trick while accompanying them across 3,500 villages in Maharashtra and other states. The trick they adopt is simple yet effective. They place a large cage where the monkeys are usually active in farmlands, lure the monkeys with corn and bananas which are placed inside the cage, and wait. The moment they step inside the cage to eat, the door swings close.
“We caught 60 monkeys from Ravindra Metkar's farm in Anjangaon Bari and the surrounding area in half an hour. We have never chased or harmed them,” says Samadhan. “We know their love for food and guide them to the cage. It’s about understanding them, and carrying them to safer locations,” he adds. The transfer of the monkeys from small cages to a larger one is again done through food - like peanuts and corn kernels - and water is also offered in the cages. Once all of them are in, they are mostly taken to nearby forests of Botha in Buldhana district, and released safely, he informs.
"In our farm, the monkeys were causing damage to crops including coconut trees. They also broke the roof of the poultry farm by jumping on the tin roof. So, I called the Giri brothers to help me and other villagers by taking away the monkeys," said Ravindra Metkar.
Known as Giri Bandhu, also addressed as Monkey Men, the family belongs to Ambhai village in Sillod taluka of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar district and has so far relocated 4.5 lakh monkeys across the state.
The Giri brothers are wildlife lovers who take pride in giving monkeys a new life. "It is not only the monkeys who cause damage, even humans attack them in many ways when they raid crops. We want to give them a safe outlet," explains Sadan Giri, another brother, who believes that both need to be relieved of trouble - the farmers who suffer losses and monkeys who playfully cause damage.
The stories of their expertise in catching monkeys caught former Maharashtra Governor Ramesh Bais' attention who also took their help to capture monkeys creating havoc in his Raipur farm in Chhattisgarh. The brothers been working across Maharashtra—from Chandur Railway to Dhamangaon Railway till Warud Bagachi.
However, they agree on one point that catching monkeys is a difficult task in any village where people crowd and create a stir-like situation. "But we are now used to these issues and know how to handle," the siblings said.
The fee they charge for catching a monkey is Rs 800. But for farmers like Ravindra Metkar, it’s worth every rupee. "We would have lost lakhs because of the simians. We do not mind paying the amount as it saved us from massive loss," says Metkar.
The Maharashtra State Revenue and Forest Department pays Samadhan Giri a remuneration of Rs 60,000 for his efforts in Konkan and Marathwada. “In places like Chiplun, Ratnagiri, and Dapoli, the government supports our work. But in Vidarbha, the farmers have no option as the government doesn’t offer any help,” says Samadhan.
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