3-yr-old falls to death while trying to ward off monkey attack

A three-year-old boy fell to his death in Jewar while trying to escape stray monkeys which surrounded him on the roof of his house.

A three-year-old boy fell to his death in Jewar on Sunday evening while trying to escape stray monkeys which surrounded him on the roof of his house, the police said.

In a similar incident in Ghaziabad on February 1, a 70-year-old man died after falling from the terrace of his house while fending off an attack by a dozen monkeys. (HT File Photo)

The boy, identified as Mohammad Ahad, was playing on the roof when the incident took place.

“A group of monkeys roaming around the area surrounded Ahad. He cried for help and tried to run, but instead of running towards the staircase, he ran in the opposite side where there was no boundary wall. He slipped from the roof and fell on the road,” said Surender Yadav, station house officer, Jewar police station.

Ahad’s parents, on hearing the thud, rushed outside and saw the boy lying in a pool of blood. They rushed him to a nearby hospital where he succumbed to injuries.

“Parents of the deceased have refused to file a case,” Yadav said.

Ahad’s father, Mohammad Nasir, a resident of Mohalla Khatiwan of Jewar, works as a mechanic in the same locality.

Nazeer said he did not want to file a case against anyone and requested the authorities to check the monkey menace.

“The municipality must come up with a permanent solution to this problem. We often ignore stray monkeys and this can be disastrous for children,” Nazeer said.

In December last year, the district magistrate had directed local authorities to plant fruit-bearing trees in the reserved green areas and jungles so that the monkeys released in the area do not stray in search of food.

In a similar incident in Ghaziabad on February 1, a 70-year-old man died after falling from the terrace of his house at Vijay Nagar while fending off an attack by a dozen monkeys. District officials said it was the responsibility of the forest department to capture stray monkeys while the forest department said they did not have enough funds to capture and rehabilitate the animals elsewhere.