BWF World C'ships: Langur mimics brought in to stop ‘monkey business’

Desperate to prevent monkeys from intruding next week's badminton World Championships at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, the organisers have opted for a rather unusual measure by roping in three professional mimics to imitate the grunts and snorts of a langur to "scare the macaques away".

It's a solution that is bound to evoke a few laughs, according to PV Sindhu but the iconic shuttler also said that it shows India's effort to make the event a success.

The BWF World Championships are returning to India after 17 years and the both the Badminton Association of India and the Sports Authority of India have combined to give the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium a thorough makeover to prevent the mishaps that drew international criticism during the India Open earlier this year.

The organisers have roped in three trained monkey whisperers, who mimic the calls of langurs to scare away rhesus macaques, which are commonly found in central Delhi, including the area around the stadium, which will host the August 17-23 championships.

The unqiue solution comes in the wake of the India Open in January which was briefly disrupted by monkeys in spectator stands, the images making international headlines.

Rhesus macaques are believed to be wary of langurs, which are considerably bigger in size, and the mimicry is being used as a deterrent. The use of actual langurs for such activities was banned in 2012.

Former world championship-medallist and two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu said the measure may seem funny to many but it is "uniquely Indian."

"You can laugh at the solution, but you have to love the effort. So many people are working behind the scenes to make sure India is ready to welcome the world. Our solutions may be uniquely Indian, but so are our warmth, our spirit and our hospitality," Sindhu posted on X.

Earlier this year, even the Delhi Assembly floated a tender to hire mimics to prevent monkeys from entering the area.

"By making this sound (langur's grunts and snorts), a lot of monkeys run away. We chase them away like this so that no vehicles are parked on the road," said Zafar, one of the monkey whisperers hired by the organisers.

"This is our generational job. We have been doing it our whole lives. There is no such place where I have not performed my duty, whether it is North Block, South Block, Rashtrapati Bhawan, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Mathura — wherever we receive work from," he added.

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