Baby Dies Who Was Stolen By A Monkey In India

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Indian police are working with a group that specializes in tracing and catching monkeys after one of the primates, common in eastern India, snatched a baby from its mother's hands. The infant was found by a dead relative in a well at the back of the family's home in Orissa state the next day, according to the BBC.

Monkeys often enter and loot houses in Orissa and other parts of India, generally in search of food. They are known to have attacked humans, but a police officer told the BBC that Saturday's incident was the first of its kind in India, although at least one other baby died after being abducted by a monkey in Malaysia.

"While monkeys attacking humans or entering houses in search of food are quite common, this is the first case in which one ran away with a baby," the local official told the BBC. He said authorities hoped to catch the offending primate "within a week."

A doctor told the BBC that the baby appeared to have drowned at the bottom of the well, as there were no signs of physical injury or other trauma.

"It seems that while the monkey was jumping off the terrace, my baby slipped from its claws and fell into the well," the boy's father, identified as Rama Krushna Nayak, told The Times of India newspaper.

The baby's mother said she saw the monkey steal the baby after entering her home, but did not have time to try to snatch the boy from the primate before it escaped.

The autopsy revealed that the boy had died of suffocation from drowning, according to local reports.

However, the police said that "the family is convinced that it was the monkey that killed their son."