How Social Media Helped Reunite A Brutally Kidnapped Monkey With Her Family

How Social Media Helped Reunite A Brutally Kidnapped Monkey With Her Family

“I like some animals more than some people, some people more than some animals.”

- Jane Goodall

We couldn’t find better words to summarise this article. We were happy to point out some of India’s best national parks, which are engaged in commendable conservation efforts to save endangered species like the Red Panda but as man creates, so does he destroy.

This video is going viral. The act in the video is brutal and inhuman. Please spread the word so that we can identify the culprits.
Posted by Indiatimes on Sunday, June 21, 2015

A viral video since last week showed a group of five men kidnapping a monkey from the Varandha Ghats in Maharashtra. The video shows one man lifting the monkey by a rope and placing him in the bootspace of the car while the monkey’s family helplessly screams and even follows the vehicle as it makes a quick escape. Every passive share of the video seemed utterly futile,  but due to the efforts of a few passionate individuals and organisations, a commendable turnaround was executed in this particular case.

Animal Rights groups such as PETA India and Animal Equality India lobbied the authorities to take action with PETA India filing a Preliminary Offence Report with the Maharashtra Forest Department. The virality of the video and the constant vigilance put on the issue by concerned citizens and animal lovers is said to have prompted a quick resolution on the matter as all five alleged culprits surrendered in front of the Bhor Taluka Court a few days ago.

The forest officials seemed to have track down the alleged kidnappers earlier in the week, identifying the monkey catcher as Dilip Ghisare along with his accomplices Lalu Ghisare, Changa Ghisare, Nitin Ghisare and Ramesh Katke. The accused have been sentenced to a 24 hour judicial remand  and may face upto three to seven years imprisonment if found guilty, while PETA suspects that they belong to a larger wildlife crime racket

The rescued monkey was placed under the care of wildlife officials and a veterinary doctor for the day and was reunited with her family yesterday. Forest Officials and PETA staff members, Dr. Ashish Sutar and Neha Singh, took the baby monkey to her family and were able to provide some incredible clicks of that joyous reunion.

We can certainly notch this up as a social media victory while being cautious in questioning our failure in protecting animals. The person who shot the video deserves to be thanked as much as the police and forest officials but many commenters on the video ask - why didn’t he/she intervene to stop the crime from happening in the first place? As one animal in the Western Ghats relishes the reunion with her family, we can’t help feel a sense of dread for the thousands in need of a similar rescue, which social media can’t always offer a solution to. Still, if you do see something criminal and cruel happening right before your eyes perhaps ‘sharing’ it may not be the worst thing you could think to do.

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