Starving simians' saved by tomato crop in Adilabad district

Devotees, farmers feel they are feeding god Hanuman.

Update: 2018-02-19 21:16 GMT
A monkey feeds on tomato crop left by farmers.

KUMARAMBHEEM ASIFABAD: Tomatoes have become the favourite food of monkeys in the Kerameri and Mahaboob ghats and the Gandi Pochamma temple after Bheersaipet in Kadam mandal in the old Adilabad district. 

The simians can be seen sitting on the walls and trees around the temples devouring tomatoes that have been offered to them by devotees or dumped on the roadside by farmers.

With depleting forest cover in these areas and diminishing minor forest produce, the hungry monkeys wait on the roads hoping for passers-by to feed them; there have even been incidents of hungry monkeys attacking people to get food. 

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation releases the monkeys it catches in Hyderabad and its surroundings, in Kerameri and Mahaboob ghats. Apart from pilgrims who consider monkeys to be a form of Lord Hanuman and thus feed them, the monkeys benefit from the dumping of tomato crop by distressed farmers. 

The drastic fall in tomato prices in the last one month has made it unprofitable for farmers to transport the crop to the market and so they just leave it to rot in the fields or on the roads. 

As K. Ramkishan of Kerameri said, it’s a good thing that devotees think it is auspicious to feed monkeys, and the rotting tomato crop is also being put to some use. 

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