Monkeys threaten power supply

Monkeys threaten power supply

NEW DELHI (DPA): Monkeys are emerging as a threat to electricity supply in the power-cut prone Indian capital and their penchant for causing blackouts has not spared even the federal president and the prime minister, reports said.

Senior officials have asked the New Delhi Municipal Committee (NDMC), which supplies power to the VIP areas, to immediately appoint monkey catchers to tackle the growing menace of the simians which tend to jump over transformers causing short circuits.

This was necessary to prevent damages worth hundreds of thousands of rupees, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported quoting a senior NDMC official.

"Ever month they jump over the transformers and high tension transmission lines. The transformers trip as soon as the monkeys jump on them," NDMC's chief electrical engineer M.R.Saini said.

"The transformers are guarded from all the sides but what do we do about the roofs?" Saini asked.

Saini said there are hordes of monkeys in the area where the transformer supplying power to the president's and prime minister's houses are located.

"They jump on the transformer and it trips immediately. Though the supply to the president's and prime minister's houses is ensured by other transformers, such constant tripping is not good for the electricity supply," he said.

Saini said earlier the NDMC used to employ monkey catchers. But the posts were lying vacant now and the monkey population has increased by leaps and bounds.

Press reports had earlier said that there were no takers for the jobs of monkey catchers because Hindus revere the simians as incarnations of the Monkey god Hanuman and consider it a sin to harm them.