Ramu is a

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...

living in the

Baleswar district Balasore District, also known as Baleswar District, is an administrative district of Odisha state, in eastern India. Balasore is one of the coastal districts of Odisha and lies on the northernmost part of the state. Etymology Baleswar is sa ...

of the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n state of

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

. The monkey was kept behind bars at the Remuna police station in Orissa for 5 years on the charge of disturbing communal harmony.

Arrest

Ramu was three years old when he attacked and bit a number of children in Jagannathpur village. A

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

family was taking care of Ramu while the children belonged to the

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

community, sparking communal tension in the area. The local

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

decided to arrest the animal after the incident. Once freed, the monkey again went back to biting children leading to his second arrest by the police. The police decided to put him behind bars for good.

Release

Under Indian

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animals and uncultivated plant species which can exist in their natural habitat, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introdu ...

rules,

rhesus macaque The rhesus macaque (''Macaca mulatta''), colloquially rhesus monkey, is a species of Old World monkey. There are between six and nine recognised subspecies split between two groups, the Chinese-derived and the Indian-derived. Generally brown or g ...

monkeys like Ramu are a Schedule II

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

and cannot be kept as pets or in cages. Wildlife activists demanded that some action be taken by the Forest Department of the state.{{cite news , url = http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/10/15/10074926.html , title = Ramu checks in and the activists go wild , work = , publisher = IANS , pages = , page = , date = 2006-10-15 , accessdate = 2006-10-19 The police claim to have treated the animal well giving it regular meals. According to Niranjan Kumar Dhir, the officer-in-charge at the Remuna police station, the monkey was given regular baths and fed four times a day. Following more pressure from the activists and worldwide attention brought to Ramu's plight,Ramu in the News
/ref> the police released the monkey and handed it over to wildlife officials on October 18, 2006.

Notes

References

* Ramu in the New

Individual monkeys Individual animals in India Monkeys in India

Arrest

Release

See also

Notes

References