Forest Nursery- Mount Abu

Taken at the Abu nursery with my nokia phone

I had gone to the Abu forest nursery with my daughter Jennifer to buy some fruit trees to plant around our house. I was shocked to see the plight of this once flourishing and lush green place reduced to a barren and featureless landscape. The green house that was there was bare and no seemed to be around, I met an old Kaka a typical Rajasthani and asked him what had transpired here to leave this place looking more of a graveyard than a nursery. He lamented that there were no funds and that it was not viable any more, hence this pathetic state. He told me there was a handful of guava plantlet available for sale if I was interested. My daughter immediately agreed to buy a few and set off immediately to choose them from the dozen or so that were available.
While going through the plants I heard the agonizing cry of a monkey and realized at once a monkey had been attacked by a dog or pack of dogs. I immediately responded by yelling on the top of my voice and started to race towards the source of the sound. I know I’m totally unfit and my dash towards the source of the pitiful cries of the monkey was more of a waddle than a dash got me to a scene that really got me mad, I grabbed whatever I could and raced towards the two dogs that were tearing away at a half grown monkey. I literally stood over this gruesome scene waving my hands like a madman which scared the two dogs away. The monkey was abs stunned with its neck and one hip ripped open. The dogs did try and come back for the kill but by the time I had managed to get hold of a large branch of a tree that frightened the dogs away , but the dilemma did not end there as the dogs began to chase the rest of the troupe that were attracted by the cries of the wounded monkey.

The wounded monkey was in a bad state and could hardly move initially, I kept a watchful eye for the look out of the two dogs which I knew would return. The monkey after many failed attempts managed to climb up a small tree but was in a total shock .The dogs did return but my stone throwing and accurate shots dissuaded them from making any more attempts. I phoned the animal for welfare group and told them of the predicament that this monkey was going through, and what action were they going to take. I was told it was Saturday and nothing could be done about it as all offices would be closed. I then tried the government forest office with no avail, Kaka and my daughter came looking for me and were quite shocked to see the poor monkey sitting in a drooping position all torn up. Kaka told me that nothing could be done about it as no one was going to respond to any of my calls for help and that now that the monkey was on the tree if he survived his wounds he would survive. In the mean time I phoned another PFA member and requested him to see what he could do about the situation, he responded immediately and said that he would look into the matter. One member asked me if the monkey was killed then and only then would someone from the municipal would come to carter away the carcass to the dumps, another suggested that if it’s chance of survival was less than 50% then it should be left to the mercy of the dogs so that later the carcass could be fed to the crocks in the heart of the sanctuary i.e. Trevor’s Tank.

Kaka told me in Rajasthani that nothing could be done about the situation, his only chance of survival would be the monkey regaining his composure and strength after resting for some time. He said the dogs would be back but since it was on the tree they would not be able to do anything. We picked up our few sparse guava tree and headed for home.