Monkey Travels 22 KM To Take 'Revenge' From Villagers Who Informed Forest Officials About It

A monkey near Kottigehara village of Karnataka's Chikkamagalur district covered a distance of 22 kilometres to take 'revenge' on villagers, as per TNN.

It initially was going around snatching fruits and snacks from the villagers. At first, they did not care much, but when schools reopened, it was spotted around Morarji Desai School in the area.

After kids got frightened of the primate, the first department was alerted and a team came to trap it on September 16.

The forest officials struggled to catch the monkey and had to take help from nearby auto drivers and others to catch it.

One of the auto drivers named Jagadish was the target of an attack by the monkey. It bit him on his hand and scraped him off. When Jagadish ran in terror, the monkey went to him. He hid in his auto but the monkey tore down its covers.

iStock

"I was scared as hell. The mad monkey was following me everywhere. It bit me so hard that my doctor said my wounds will take at least a month to heal. I can¡¯t drive my auto-rickshaw which is my bread and butter. Also, I didn¡¯t go home that day fearing the monkey would follow me home. I have small kids at home. What if it attacks them? I am still very afraid," he said while speaking to News18.

It took over 30 people to finally trap it after 3 hours. The forest department released it in Balur forest, around 22 km from the village.

Things were back to normal until the monkey returned in less than a week. It hitched a ride on a truck and somehow reached Kottigehara.

iStock

When Jagadish learned it was back he hid.

"I felt a chill go down my spine when I heard that the monkey is back in the village. I called the forest department myself and asked them to rush immediately. I haven¡¯t gone out of my hiding. I know it is the same monkey because we all saw a mark on his ear last time and my friend said the villagers noticed it," he added.

"We really don¡¯t know why the monkey targeted one man. We don¡¯t know if he had caused any harm to the animal previously or was it just an immediate reaction. But, this is the first time we have seen a monkey behaving like this though monkeys attacking humans are not unheard of," said Mohan Kumar BG, Range Forest Officer, Mudigere.

The monkey was again trapped on September 22. This time it was released deep in the forest.

Jagadish is still indoors and prays the monkey never comes back.