He is patrolling with Thailand’s “Anti-Monkey Unit” fighting to keep the monkeys out of Lopburi.

A city in Thailand has been caught between rival groups of monkeys that have terrorized, robbed and attacked local residents, even driving some from their homes and businesses.

Lopburi is famous for its long-tailed macaques and hosts an annual festival for the animals, but in recent years the population has exploded and started to cause problems.

tensions escalated earlier this year when a woman sprained her knee after being kicked in the back by a monkey that was looking for her food.

In April, after a growing number of complaints from residents, authorities began rounding up thousands of monkeys and placing them in large cages to be cleaned and registered while trying to find permanent solution.

But soon after the “arrest” began, about 30 monkeys escaped and attacked the police.

Police Lance Corporal Arnu Amarit said with the increasing number of monkeys, there is not enough food for all of them.

“When monkeys are hungry, they snatch food from people who are walking,” he said.

“They are becoming more aggressive and aggressive, especially the leaders of the groups… they attack cars or push people.”

The situation is so serious that the police have formed a task force, which the media has called the “Anti-Monkey Unit”.

Lance Corporal Amarit said: “Our team is a prevention and stress center.

“We handle criminal and monkey cases. We do our core business with monkey business.”

Police patrol the town armed with slingshots, but Lance Corporal Amarit said they do not use guns.

“We use a sling but there is nothing in it, we just stretch it to threaten them,” he said.

But after a while, the monkeys adapt to it and learn that we don’t use real weapons – there are no real bullets.

Primates and children fight

Even the local Pibulwitthayalai School has not been spared from the rampaging macaques.

Student Panitchada Nualpoj was recently robbed by another in the school grounds.

“The monkey stole my AirPod and bit it,” he said.

“It was an expensive device and I don’t have enough money to buy a new one so I was very upset, I was very sad.”

His classmate Kodchaporn Runghuapai says the animals are out of control.

“They don’t just steal, sometimes they attack students and if they steal, it’s not just food, but like key chains or my classmate’s iPad and his Apple pencil, which are expensive very high,” he said.

He said that monkeys are also swimming in the school’s pool.

“They swim in there, they baptize in there, they get wet in there, everything really bad is in there, so it’s not for the people anymore, it’s not for the students anymore, it’s for them .”

The director of the school, Thammawit Tampitee, said the school has given notices to students at the beginning of each term.

Don’t look into the monkey’s eyes. Do not feed the monkeys. Don’t go alone, go in a group,” he said.

“The worst case is being bitten. Some monkeys jump on students’ shoulders and pull their hair.”

He said that it is clear that the number of people has increased a lot, and a lot of money is needed to fix the problem.

“Monkey lovers will say there are about 3000 monkeys [in Lopburi]. “People who don’t like monkeys will say there are about 5,000 monkeys. I take an average so I think there are about 4,000 monkeys,” he said.

“When the population is too high, it is difficult to live together but if there is a bigger budget for monkey prevention, we can reduce the number of monkeys without harming them. Then we can all live together with harmony.”

A mass arrest of monkeys is planned

Authorities have seized more than 1,200 monkeys but more “arrests” are planned.

The mayor of Lopburi, Chamroen Salacheep, says that once the different groups are separated from the animals that are kept in the houses where they are fed regularly, they are no longer aggressive towards people.

“We’re building a lot of footage, there’s a lot of budget coming,” he said.

“The Prime Minister will give us 27 million Baht (NZ$1.2million) to build ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

But since no other province is willing to take the animals, the mayor said they are hungry mouths that need to be fed.

“My concern is that we can feed 1200 monkeys now and people are donating food to support us, but if we catch another 3000 after the cages are gone, in total there will be 4000 monkeys, how will we get the budget for that?

“The budget for the 4,000 monkeys would be more than 20 million Baht (NZ$950,000) for food costs, not including medicine.”

He wants the National Parks Department to do more to support the monkeys in the long term, but in the meantime the children’s department will continue to look after them.

He said the authorities will continue to fine and arrest tourists who have violated the warnings not to feed the remaining monkeys in the city.

Salacheep expects it will take a year or two to solve Lopburi’s monkey problem, but is adamant that he will not eradicate the city’s monuments entirely.

“The symbol of Lopburi must stay. Lopburi must have monkeys. There is no other way,” he said.

“We have to leave some of them to create a balance so that humans and apes can live together.

“Tourists will still be able to see the monkeys in Lopburi. I will not catch them all.”

– ABC