Tarun Karthick
Sri Vijaya Puram, 20 June 2025
The long-standing coexistence between people and monkeys in Great Nicobar Island is quickly deteriorating, with an alarming rise in aggressive behaviour exhibited by the Nicobar Long-tailed Macaque. What was as soon as a largely peaceable human-primate relationship has, over the previous decade, remodeled right into a persistent menace—significantly in villages alongside the North-South Road hall and the Campbell Bay area.
Residents, significantly farmers, are bearing the brunt of the rising monkey menace. The Nicobar Long-tailed Macaques, beforehand non-aggressive and fast to retreat when confronted, now show open hostility throughout encounters. Locals report that when efforts are made to chase them away from plantations, the monkeys not flee however as a substitute retaliate with aggression—typically even attacking the people.
The root of the disaster, locals imagine, could be traced again to the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. In the wake of the catastrophe, many settlers relocated to Campbell Bay and have been housed in non permanent shelters. With no street connectivity on the time, huge stretches of agricultural land remained unguarded, providing the monkeys unchecked entry to coconut plantations and different crops for practically seven to eight years.
Although resettlement in previous villages has since been accomplished, and efforts to re-establish common agricultural practices resumed, the injury seems to have been achieved. The monkeys, emboldened by years of unhindered entry, have change into territorial and violent. Several farmers have reported direct confrontations the place they narrowly escaped accidents whereas defending their fields.
The downside, nonetheless, isn’t confined to the North-South Road villages. Even in Campbell Bay, monkeys are incessantly seen venturing into residential zones, properties, and public establishments such because the Primary Health Centre (PHC), the place their aggressive presence is now well-known. Locals strolling by remoted areas have additionally reported being threatened or chased by monkeys, additional underlining the extent to which the animals have misplaced their pure concern of people.
The financial value of the monkey menace is mounting, with steady destruction of crops and properties. Frustration is now turning into unrest, with group members voicing their dissatisfaction over the inaction of the forest division. Talks of scientific mitigation methods—such because the planting of fruit-bearing bushes in forest to divert monkey exercise and different measures—have thus far yielded no seen outcomes. The present standing of any such interventions stays unknown to the general public.
With the state of affairs worsening, residents concern {that a} severe incident is inevitable. The rising boldness and aggression of those primates has created an setting of day by day concern and uncertainty, and plenty of imagine it’s only a matter of time earlier than somebody suffers grievous hurt—or worse.
There is a rising refrain throughout Great Nicobar for rapid and efficient intervention earlier than the monkey menace claims human life.
