India:The deputy mayor of India's capital, New Delhi, has died after being attacked by a troop of monkeys, hundreds of which have terrorised the city for decades.
S Singh Bajwa suffered serious head injuries at the weekend when he fell from the first-floor terrace of his home as he tried to wrestle with the monkeys. He died a few hours later in hospital.
The city has long struggled to deal with troops of rhesus monkeys that vandalise government offices, hospitals and residential properties by snatching food and scaring and biting passers-by.
Efforts by Delhi's municipality to rid the city of the monkeys are hampered by the majority Hindu religious sentiment that associates monkeys with the god Hanuman, who helped Lord Rama defeat the evil king Ravana.
Millions of Indians visit Hanuman temples every Tuesday and anyone trying to trap or scare off monkeys is either beaten up or chased away.
Killing the monkeys, descendents of those who lived in the forests and abandoned buildings where New Delhi was built in the early 20th century, is out of the question. Instead, they are fed bananas and nuts.
Novel methods of dealing with the monkeys, such as chasing them away with high-frequency loudspeakers, deporting them to neighbouring states, and transporting them to India's only monkey jail about 250km (155 miles) north of Delhi, have also failed. Instructions by Delhi's high court to the city authorities to rid the capital of the monkeys has had no effect either.
"Bands of monkeys routinely lay siege to our house, forcing us to keep the doors locked and to remain vigilant at all times," said housewife Perminder Kaur from a west Delhi neighbourhood near the deputy mayor's house.
Hiring "Rambo", a huge, fierce-looking monkey trained to rid the offices of the health and urban development ministries of monkeys, proved successful for a few months some time ago. But the peace was shortlived: the monkeys banded together and saw off Rambo in several fierce encounters.
For almost five decades, the monkeys have held sway in New Delhi's corridors of power and spread mayhem across the campus of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the country's flagship research institution.
Powerful policymakers and their influential assistants walk warily down passageways in the North and South Blocks that house the prime minister's office and the defence, finance and home ministries, for fear of being set upon by monkeys concealed in niches of the imposing sandstone buildings.
Tough wire meshing stretches across the windows of the Indian army chief's office to protect the head of the world's third-largest military from the monkeys.
"We are constantly fighting a seesaw battle against monkeys," a senior military official admitted.
"For the moment we seem to be on top, but the scales will no doubt tilt in their favour."