Monkeys do get aggressive at times. When I was a kid visiting the Anjanta and Ellora caves with my family, monkeys actually dropped down and stole some food.

They are also provoked quite easily, in this particular case it was too easy. A dumbass, also known as my friend, yanked the tail of a Langur sitting on a shedtop. The Langur jumped down, whacked the idiot on the chest, and bounced away. That wasn't the worst. Back then you had the 14 shots in the navel routine to prevent rabies.

I have to agree with Blank, I recall having some contentious encounters with monkeys in the Gujarat as well. At my grandmother's house, monkeys often came by and stole food, and once whacked my brother with a stick (okay, that part was a little funny, in retrospect).

on one visit to the taj mahal I saw a langur go up to a man who was wearing sunglasses and eating chips with his kids. The langur came up to the guy, crawled up so he was hanging around the man's neck, ate some chips, took his sunglasses, slapped the man in his face and ran away.

they're like people, i tell you.

Even though wild monkeys rampage through towns in India, destroying property, eating villagers' food and physically attacking people, they are considered holy to Hindus and are pretty much left alone. However, according to a September dispatch in London's The Independent, as attacks have grown in number and severity recently, police have been finding dozens of monkey carcasses with slashed throats. Police believe that the bodies were the result of contract killings, ordered in the belief that paying someone else to harm monkeys was not quite the sacrilege of doing it directly. [The Independent, 9-2-04]

News of the weird

Hey hey guys and gals,
you have so much abt monkey that it interest me. i am working on monkeys and wish to do a survey of gujarat...can u people just drop in your comment and places u have seen monkeys and also which one...means red faced or black faced.