INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
Monkeys in India face growing environmental as well as human pressures
A 12-day-old boy has died after he was snatched from his mother and bitten by a monkey in northern India
The infant's mother was breastfeeding him at their home in the city of Agra when the animal entered the house and grabbed him, the family
said.The monkey dropped the badly bitten child on a neighbour's roof after locals gave chase to the animal
The baby died of his injuries in hospital
Locals say monkey attacks in the area are growing more frequent.The baby's uncle, Dhirendra Kumar, told the TheIndianSubcontinent that the
"There are too many monkeys in the area
We have told the administration so many times to help us but they haven't done anything
The mother of the baby is too distraught to even speak," he said.Pushpa Devi, the child's grandmother said the family would "never recover"
from the loss.Image copyrightYogesh Kumar SinghImage caption
Pushpa Devi, the baby's grandmother, told the
TheIndianSubcontinent that people are living in fear of monkeys
"I have lost my grandson
Just a few hours before the monkey attacked our baby, I had him in my arms
Our baby didn't have to die
People will talk about it for a while and then forget it
But we have to live with the reality that our baby is gone," she said.Ajay Kaushal, the officer in charge of the nearby police station, told
the Reuters news agency that the baby had been badly mauled
"The monkey bit the infant's head and only dropped him when people chased it with sticks and threw stones at it," he said This is the latest
incident in a series of monkey attacks in Agra, which is also home to India's most famous monument, the Taj Mahal
Two months earlier, a toddler was attacked by monkeys and is recovering in hospital
In May, two tourists were attacked at the Taj Mahal
"Monkeys are everywhere in Agra," Shravan Kumar Singh, a local environmental activist told Reuters
Image copyrightYogesh Kumar SinghImage caption
Locals say monkeys can be seen on almost every street in Agra
"They come in search of food, but they snatch and attack as well."Mr Singh said monkeys were becoming more aggressive as a result of
being displaced from their natural habitats, which have been destroyed by the expanding city
Some local organisations have been calling for monkeys to be sterilised and excluded from wildlife protection legislation, he added
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