--- title: Monkey Men in New Delhi India description: Monkey Men entice marauding monkeys to leave by impersonating the sounds of the aggressive langur monkey. canonical: https://time.com/3149030/monkey-men-new-delhi-india/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-21T14:53:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T08:58:08.574Z og:title: These Men Are Hired by The Indian Government to Talk to Monkeys og:description: "Monkey Men" impersonate the animals to shoo them away from buildings in New Delhi og:url: https://time.com/3149030/monkey-men-new-delhi-india/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7bb1a128ae59670/6986a03f55a85937b0a823c1/453323354.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3720 og:image:height: 2093 og:image:alt: In this photograph taken on August 5, 2014, monkeys gather on a fence in the backyard of a home in New Delhi. The government has hired 40 "monkey wallahs", an Indian term that roughly translates as monkey men, who mimic the aggressive langur, the natura og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Men Are Hired by The Indian Government to Talk to Monkeys twitter:description: "Monkey Men" impersonate the animals to shoo them away from buildings in New Delhi twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7bb1a128ae59670/6986a03f55a85937b0a823c1/453323354.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # These Men Are Hired by The Indian Government to Talk to Monkeys > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME The Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition The Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The day's top headlines, curated by TIME editors. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=4ef9dd3e-b736-443b-89b8-d2035586e5e3&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Meet One of India's 'Monkey Men' [Watch (HLS stream): Meet One of India's 'Monkey Men'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/c48HnqpO.m3u8) (2:19)  _Published 2014-08-20. Monkey Men_ by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Aug 21, 2014 2:53 PM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Aug 21, 2014 2:53 PM UTC Have a monkey infestation problem? If you’re around Delhi, India, you might want to call up Mahendra Goswami. He is a ‘Monkey Walla,’ or ‘Monkey Man,’ one of the many men hired by the Indian government to shoo monkeys away from buildings and areas where people are present. These men entice monkeys to leave by impersonating the sounds of the aggressive langur monkey, often wearing a mask and hiding behind trees, according to the [AFP](http://www.afp.com/en/node/2683444). Monkeys in Delhi have been known to trash homes and gardens and have even attacked people while looking for food. \[[AFP](http://www.afp.com/en/node/2707200)\] ## Transcript In [ INAUDIBLE ] line of work, his voice is his greatest tool. He's a monkey wallah or monkey man whose job is to frighten groups of recess macaques from government buildings and residences in New Delhi. He does this by mimicking the sounds of their natural enemy, the larger langur. [ FOREIGN ] This is to scare the monkey away. The monkey thinks the lango is around the corner. And this one. And then this one. That's to scare them away. We mix all three sounds, so the monkeys think that a man has come with a lango. The government has employed 40 monkey men to shoo the trespassers from places they don't belong. Though revered in Hinduism, monkeys are widely seen as a menace, often breaking into offices and homes in search of food. They can even be dangerous, and in extreme cases, rubber bullets are used to scare them away. They destroy the records, they always destroy the instruments, they always play with the electricity, electric wires etcetera. So and moreover when people take lunch then they take away their lunch and even sometimes they also give them bite or they scare them for getting the food so all these problems are there they create nuisance and that's why we have to take these actions. [ MUSIC ] For decades monkey catchers and trained langurs were hired to control the city's primates. But, the government cracked down on the business last year. After a court ruled that keeping the animals in captivity was cruel. Now, that Mahendra has had to set his simian colleague free, he's forced to work alone. [ FOREIGN ] Now, when we make the sounds, the monkeys look to check if the langur monkey is really there. [ FOREIGN ] Now, we have to go much closer, and keep on making the calls, so the monkey thinks a langur is there. [ FOREIGN ] It's become much harder and riskier for us than before. [ FOREIGN ] Gates and fences and no deterrent for Delhi's marauding monkeys. 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