Delhi has been one of the fastest growing cities in the world in the last 25 years, with half a million new residents every year. The race to attract global capital, one that every Indian city is engaged in at this moment, has affected urban policy frameworks in Delhi as well. In the last five years, the city has seen a large number of attempts at “cleansing” of the city, where slum housing has been systematically removed, paving the way for new development. This, coupled with the neglect of public housing projects has meant that satellite cities like Gurgaon have grown at even faster rates.

This paper looks at a unique problem that is a consequence of this urbanization: the monkey menace. Northern India has a large monkey population, and a large urban monkey populace has traditionally been part of many Indian cities. The rapid growth of cities has meant that many peri-urban and wild monkeys are now being brought into the fold of urban development.

A modern city that wants to attract global capital has no place for monkeys. The Delhi municipality has been engaged in a protracted fight with the monkey population, with the argument that not only do they make the city unsightly by congregating near some of the most prestigious monuments, but also that they move around in packs and attack good tax paying citizens resting on their private terraces. The policy framework for fighting this menace has been in place for the last decade, and the municipality also has a monkey catching department. There is a thriving business of private monkey catchers. With the Commonwealth Games being hosted in Delhi in 2010, there is now increased pressure to make the city more attractive and safe. The Supreme Court of India has been pressing the city municipality to remove these monkeys, and has marked out a number of deadlines for complete monkey removal. Over the next year, 100 monkey catchers in a total of 14 teams will scour the city to catch the 5,000 to 25,000 monkeys (the official figures vary) that roam around the city. Much like their human (and poor) counterparts, the monkeys will be sent to transit camps on the city’s periphery, where they will live until they are sent back to the forests, where they are supposed to live.

This paper will attempt to look at how a city tries to deal with “wild” life in particular and unwanted elements in general, through a lens of citizenship. It also questions the ideas of “nature” that are deployed in civic space, and how certain recreational aspects of “nature” are chosen over the others. The paper also examines the psychology of fear that gets built around uncontrollable aspects of nature in urban space.