Earlier this week, Danny was invited to attend a farmers’ “agitation,” which was to discuss the monkey problem that was occurring in the villages outside Shimla. Not only do monkeys steal food from humans in urban areas, they take fruit, vegetables, and grains from village farms, thereby ruining crops and the farmers’ livelihoods. When we heard that it was an agitation, we were thinking it would be a rally, much like the Communist rally we had seen a few days earlier: a large group of people, holding red flags, and someone shouting over a microphone. It turned out to be more of a conference – a three-hour long, rather boring meeting with speeches from different members of the community concerned with this particular monkey problem.
It began with a gathering on the main road by the bus terminal. This was because many people were coming in on buses from their villages. People milled about, Danny talked to a couple of them (including an interesting fellow with dreads who was a retired principal), and I baked in the hot late morning sun and watched the vegetable vendors sell their wares. After nearly two hours, we trekked up the hill – very slowly, as the majority of folks were older.
The conference was held in the auditorium at Kali Bari temple. Some men set up a microphone and podium on the stage and hung signs with slogans around the room. There were also journalists in attendance, taking photos and video and also interviewing Danny. All the speeches were in Hindi, so, while I tried to look interested, it was difficult to really pay attention. In fact, I found myself beginning to doze after about an hour or so. Listening to their tone, though, I definitely could tell that there was a lot of frustration and anger about the monkeys (and also feral pigs) that were destroying their crops.
After about two and a half hours, some people came around and passed out snacks: a little plastic cup of chai and two pieces of bread pakora for everyone. The pakora was greasy, and the slices of bread were filled with a little bit of curried potato. It was a heavy bit of food to put into my stomach when all I’d had was toast for breakfast, but it tasted good. After all, how can you not like a deep-fried potato curry sandwich?
When the agitation was over, Danny shook a few hands, and we headed back into town, stopping along the way to look at the goods being sold outside the temple. All in all, it was an interesting experience, though I have to admit I personally didn’t get a lot out of it. I did feel bad for the farmers, though. India’s farmers are faced with quite a challenge from several wild animals, including elephants, which trample crops (and houses!), and tigers and leopards, which kill livestock. There isn’t an easy solution to controlling crop destruction by animals, apart from killing them – which isn’t really the answer, considering that the three mentioned above are endangered. The farmers at this conference would like to see monkeys eliminated through culling or by exporting them to the U.S. and U.K. (which is currently illegal), where they could be used for biomedical research. Current methods, such as relocation and sterilization, don’t appear to be working as well as the farmers would like.
The next day, we were told that, apparently, Danny and I had been on the local TV station.
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