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Indian Farmers Switch to Herbs to Thwart Hungry Monkeys

Anjana Pasricha

   HIMACHAL PRADESH, INDIA - A group of farmers from Magroo village in
   India's northern state of Himachal Pradesh listens intently as
   agriculture experts hold a workshop to explain how growing herbs
   instead of traditional crops such as rice, wheat and corn could save
   their farms from the ravages of monkeys.

   For years they have waged a losing battle with growing hordes of the
   red-faced rhesus macaques. Displaced by shrinking forests and rapidly
   spreading urban centers, the primates raid farms in several northern
   Indian states, searching for food and destroying crops worth millions
   of dollars.

   "In the day we roam around with dogs and we use an air gun," said
   farmer Babu Ram. "Then they run off quickly, otherwise it is difficult
   to keep away the monkeys." But guarding the fields at night poses a
   challenge, especially for those that aren't close to his home.

   The growing menace has prompted many in the state nestled in the
   Himalayan mountains to abandon farming -- an estimated 40 percent of
   the farmland here is fallow as dejected farmers gave up planting crops.

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