In a country that revers its simians as avatars of the monkey god Hanuman, the animal is being subjected to remorseless savagery in the name of superstition. The peddling of monkey skulls, for long a minor trade in Uttar Pradesh, has assumed rampant proportions of late.

"The buyers of skulls are usually rural people and quacks," says a monkey-tamer in Bangla Bazar on the outskirts of Lucknow. He is among the many professional tamers most likely to possess monkey skulls. The trade stems from the belief that a monkey's skull is the repository of medicinal virtues and can ward off evil spirits. Villagers believe it can even cure a child suffering from hallucinations. "Keeping the skull under the patient's pillow is enough to keep evil spirits away," says the monkey-tamer. He sells close to 20 monkey skulls every year. With even a small skull fetching around Rs 1,500, that's a cool Rs 30,000 a year.

The opportunity to make easy money has been grabbed gleefully by the monkey-tamers who have, however, perfected the act to avoid the attention of the authorities. The monkeys are killed and then buried. The carcasses take up to a week to decompose after which they are dug up, the skulls chopped off, cleaned and then sold to eager buyers surreptitiously.

All this does not bother the forest authorities. The killing of 200-300 monkeys a year in a city is not cause for alarm because of the high population of the primates. Such loss of numbers in case of any other wild animal would have brought down the aggregate population and drawn the attention of the forest authorities. But not much thought is spared for monkeys even though under Schedule II of the Indian Forest Act, the punishment for killing a monkey is the same as that for poaching a black buck. The guilty can face imprisonment ranging from one to six years.

For its part, the Government is anxious, but only about the rising population of monkeys in cities across the country. Last year, parts of Delhi were besieged by the simians that attacked residents and created a nuisance. Taking cognisance of the problem, the Supreme Court asked the Delhi Government to move the monkeys out of the city. Two years ago, the Central Government's Social Justice Department had also asked state governments to involve private players in setting up "monkey ashrams".

The monkeys' travails are rooted in the deteriorating financial condition of their tamers. With tv bulldozing its way into people's lives, traditional means of entertainment like watching the performances of snakes, bears and monkeys no longer evoke interest. "About five years ago, we used to earn Rs 400-500 a week, but now we barely make that much in a month," laments Sumia, a 14-year-old monkey-tamer who helps his father and brothers in holding monkey shows in Lucknow. The loss in income from these shows is made up by selling monkey skulls.

However, some steps are now being taken to rehabilitate the monkeys. "Uttar Pradesh has taken the lead," says R.L. Singh, principal chief conservator of forests of the state. "We are planning to develop ashrams in different cities exclusively for monkeys." One such abode is being set up in Ghaziabad, where about 200 monkeys would be moved from Delhi this year.

But the bigger issue of trafficking in monkey skulls is still being ignored. Forest officials confirm that many animals are killed-the rhinoceros for its horn, the tiger for its bones-because of false beliefs. The monkey is the latest addition to this list. It seems the animal that is venerated by many Hindus will need all their prayers to escape its present predicament.

— Subhash Mishra