Monkey hanged to death in Indian state of Telangana

In another case of extreme brutality and growing human-animal conflict, three people in the Indian state of Telangana hanged a monkey to death to scare away other primates from the area, our New Delhi correspondent reports quoting forest department officials.

"The perpetrators, who admitted their guilt, are being booked under the Wildlife Protection Act," Sathupalli Forest Range Officer A Venkateswarlu said.

The incident happened on June 26 in Vemsoor village, about 275km from Hyderabad city. The video of the primate being hanged went viral, prompting officials to investigate.

"The accused wanted to scare other monkeys by hanging the one which was caught. We found the carcass in a decomposed state," the official said.

Monkeys regularly raid orchards at Sathupalli and surrounding areas causing trouble to locals, said Venkateswarlu.

The official said that as per a Telangana government directive 30 percent of the area in Sathupalli forest range will have edible wild fruit species to enhance the food base of monkeys and other wild animals so that when they are rehabilitated, there will be sufficient food available.