Stray gray langur rescued in Bogura

The forest department rescued a stray gray langur from near Shajahanpur Upazila Parishad complex in the district yesterday morning.

Gray langurs or hanuman langurs, the most widespread langurs of the Indian subcontinent, are a group of Old World monkeys constituting the entirety of the genus Semnopithecus.

As the hanuman was roaming in different places, mostly on trees, in Sherpur upazila of Bogura, some people gave it food while some others poked it, causing much disturbance to the stray animal, said Mohammad Subedar Islam, divisional forest officer of Social Forest Division in Bogura.

Informed by locals, upazila forest staff kept the hanuman under surveillance and informed the Bogura district forest office.

Afterwards, Bogura forest office communicated with Dhaka Wildlife Crime Control Unit (WCCU) that sent wildlife inspectors Asim Mallik and Md Abdullah Al-Sadik to Bogura on Friday.

At one stage, the hanuman came to Majhira Cantonment area in Shajahanpur upazila from Sherpur Friday night.

Yesterday morning, the hanuman was found sitting on a tree branch beside an NGO building near the upazila parishad office and the rescue team of forest officials came to the spot, said eyewitness Mizanur Rahman.

“Around 10:00am, we used a tranquiliser gun to make the langur unconscious. Then we put it into a case and took it to Bogura forest office,” said the forest officer Subedar Islam.

“After such a process, an affected animal usually remains sick for a few days. That's why we sent it to Rajshahi wildlife rescue centre for treatment around 12:45pm. After its recovery, we will release it to natural habitat in Jashore,” said Inspector Asim Mallik of the WCCU.

“Due to the food scarcity, langurs from their natural habitats in Keshabpur area of Jashore sometimes move to different places of the country, getting on banana-laden trucks. This hanuman could have reached Bogura in such a way,” he said.