2 Monkeys caught in Maharashtra in 'revenge killing' of 250 dogs

Aurangabad, Dec 19: Two monkeys were captured by the forest department in Maharashtra's Beed district for allegedly taking away some puppies and placing them on trees or roofs where they died either without food or after falling over the last few months, an official said on Sunday.

These monkeys were trapped on Saturday and shifted to their natural habitat, he said.

A resident of Lavool village claimed that at least 200 puppies had lost their lives after they were ''taken away'' by the two simians.

Range Forest Officer Amol Munde, however, said only 3 to 4 incidents of puppies dying after they were taken away by the two monkeys were reported from this village. A villager, Radhakishan Sonawane, said the two monkeys used to take away puppies with them.

''Such incidents had been happening over the last three months. These two monkeys come to our village. They take away puppies with them to the roof of houses or at any other place at height. ''At such height, these puppies don't get any food or water. Hence they died naturally many times. But sometimes they fell from a height and died. Over 200 puppies had lost their lives in our village,'' Sonawane told PTI.

Munde said the monkeys used to take away puppies, which was their ''habit''. ''They take care of puppies. They used to keep puppies on roofs or tall trees. The puppies couldn't survive at such places as they couldn't get food or water. If a puppy escaped from the two monkeys it used to die after falling from a height. The reported incidents of the death of puppies in Lavool village are 3 to 4,'' he added.

Responding to a query about whether these monkeys are targetting puppies in ''retaliatory attacks'', he said no death of any baby monkey was reported in Lavool village in the last few months.

He said some people were also injured while running away from the two monkeys. ''Monkeys generally don't attack human beings but people are afraid. Some people were injured in the past few days while running away from these monkeys. However, no incident of any monkey bite was reported in this village,'' Munde added.