Hyderabad: Monkeys on Monday pounced on BJP national executive member Prof. S.V. Seshagiri Rao and left the geophysics expert with a fractured right eye socket. The incident took place at his residence at around 10.15 am when the monkeys entered the house; the main entrance had been left open by mistake.
The 80-year-old professor had been complaining about the monkey menace in the locality but the GHMC hadn’t done anything. Prof. Rao’s wife Ms Surekha Rao, said, “The maid had left the main door open. My husband is sick and was in his bedroom while I was away doing my usual work. More than 10 monkeys entered and started throwing things around, they entered my kitchen, where my cook was preparing lunch.”
“Hearing the cook scream, my husband rushed to the kitchen, a big monkey pounced on him, he lost balance and fell on his shoulder. His right eye was bruised and swelled up so much that he could not open his eye. He was rushed to an eye hospital. “Last week the monkeys broke the pipe of the overhead tank.”
Mr Rao told this newspaper, “The CT scan showed a minor fracture to my bone beneath the right eye. I am still in a state of shock. A scan of the brain was done too. The monkeys surrounded me… we are afraid day and night, we don’t know when they will harm us, people staying in the flats cannot stand in balconies, devotees standing in queue for darshan are pounced upon."
Mr Rao in August 2015 had written to then GHMC commissioner Somesh Kumar complaining of the monkey menace at his residence. He added, “For the past 15 years, monkeys in dozens invade my house in regular intervals and destroy every bud, every tender leaf and every fruit that we nurture with great care and fondness. I have built my present house in an open plot of 464 square yards. Being an academic associated with the Osmania University and IIT-D for over four decades, I was fond of green surroundings. I have been spending considerable amounts on flowering plants and fruit-bearing small trees in my spacious compound. Through the MLA of my constituency, Mr G. Kishan Reddy, I made several representations in the past to get relief from the monkey menace. Despite all my efforts we could not awaken the sensitivities of the GHMC.”
