A large concrete board that you see while entering Mudumalai- en route to Ooty, featuring a Nilgiri Langur's face, has this line written on it. "I beg you... not to feed me". I, my friend Prasanna, and our wives were on the way to Ooty. The primary intention was to get a few clicks of the flycatcher birds there. As we entered Mudumalai, there was the aforementioned board that attracted our attention. We discussed at length on the same. The most plausible reason that we could think of was that animals would get dependant on the easy food that they get from the tourists who drive through, and lose their natural feeding skills. We discussed at length other reasons. It could as well have been because unaccustomed food like chips and other fried items could upset the stomachs of these creatures. But to realize another major danger, we had to wait till our return trip.On our way back, somewhere near the Bandipur safari camp, there were monkeys all over the road-side. Both Hanuman langurs as well as the common Indian bonnet macaque - the ones you find near temples etc. There was a qualis right ahead of us, crammed with family members and the rear window area showcasing piled up food baskets. They started throwing out bread crumbs out of the windows, all over the road. All the monkeys were on the crumbs in an instant, and in a moment, there were monkeys all over the road, right in front of us. Thankfully, we were driving at a low speed, and the monkeys picked the food and scampered off from just in front of the bonnet, without any being hit. And I saw a little one pick a piece of bread right from near the front wheel, and it was really its luck that its hand didn't get trapped under the wheel. The mindless, though gracious act of city dwellers nearly caused greivious injury to innocent wild animals.
A few feet ahead, we saw this group of Hanuman langurs, and one of them had a bad, fresh injury on his shoulder, which I used my tele to get a shot of. God knows if it was because of scrambling for food on the road, in front of incoming traffic...
But to those of you who read this, PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT FEED Wild animals while you pass thorough forest roads.
Copyright Sandeep Somasekharan, 2009
