Nellore: Besides dogs and pigs, monkeys are also causing serious problems to the people of Nellore and Kovur towns.
An 11-year-old girl narrowly escaped death when she jumped from the second floor of her house after monkeys chased her when she was brushing teeth at Kovur on Wednesday morning. She suffered an injury on her leg and back in the incident.
The girl named Pallavi is a student of Class VI at the Rathnam School in Kovur.
She said that she raised an alarm before jumping after three monkeys came towards her menacingly from the first floor and she had no other alternative but to jump to escape the animals.
However, the commotion and her yells that she was about to jump saved her. The residents of the neighbouring house were ready to catch her after hearing her shouts but narrowly missed her.
The girl, who was brought to an orthopedician in Nellore, complained about severe pain in the back and the leg.
With worry writ large on his face, her father Jnanananda, a teacher, was seen rushing her to an X-ray unit. Doctors advised two months bed rest after they found a sprain on her backbone.
Kovur panchayat secretary Murali Mohan said they caught 200 monkeys and nearly 2,000 dogs two months back. He said the panchayat pays Rs 200 to Rs 250 for each monkey trapped.
Mr Mohan said the monkeys were entering towns from nearby villages and their numbers were increasing despite catching them twice a year.
Nellore municipal corporation health officer Dr Venkata Ramana said the contractor trapped 900 monkeys last year and released them into the Rapur forests 60 km away from Nellore.
He said that biting by monkeys is very rare and they give only general treatment whenever such incidents happen as there is no threat of contracting rabies from monkeys.
He said a tribal community named Nakkalollu traps monkeys and are paid Rs 175 per animal.
