Rogue Indian Monkeys to Learn Manners In Reform School

"In addition to veterinary doctors, the center will have experts and it would be a sort of good manners school for the monkeys," a Punjab Wildlife Department official told The Hindu.

Northern India’s worst-behaving monkeys will soon be sent to a rehabilitation center now being built to teach manners to the pesky primates.

The "reform school" is being established to cope with the thousands of rogue macaques that have moved into urban areas of Punjab state while their traditional wild habitat was developed and colonized by humans.

The Hindu reports that as the animals move into population centers in search of food, they often create havoc by chasing and attacking humans while attempting to snatch their belongings.

According to Chief Wildlife Warden of Punjab R.K. Luna, the monkey population in the state has reached 50,000 with many of them also wrecking TV antennas, damaging vehicles and terrorizing children.

"Once the center is functional in the city of Patiala, forest officials in Punjab will be able to catch monkeys from residential areas and send them across so that they can be taught to be decent and live socially," state wildlife official Jasmer Singh told the newspaper.

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