Friendship between dog and monkey helps them evade forest department officials

Have you got a BFF to watch your back while you are busy stirring up mischief? Pity, if you don't; even this monkey in Thakurli had one!

It was quite an unshakeable bond between a stray and a monkey at Thakurli station

It took forest department officials and animal lovers a month to break through the bond of a stray dog and a monkey let loose at the railway station to catch hold of the latter after complaints from locals. Reason: every time they reached the spot to nab the monkey, his pal would bare those canines and bark his head off, not letting anyone near his mate.

The monkey sustained injuries yesterday while trying to escape forest department officials

An animal lover from Kalyan, Suhas Pawar, 28, said that on October 19 they received a complaint from a railway engineer, Tushar Ranade, about a monkey roaming near the sub-station and harassing people. "Since then, we had been visiting the spot to catch the animal, but the dog thwarted all our attempts. We had found out that the monkey had nearly caused a short circuit twice," he added. Pawar said the two were such fast friends that the dog used to lick the monkey's injuries.

Range Forest Officer, Kalyan, S S Khedekar said they finally managed yesterday. "It was quite some friendship between the two. On Thursday, when we reached the spot, we asked the sub-station staff to distract the dog with food, and restrained it when it was busy eating. After that, we trapped the monkey. It sustained injuries during the whole drama. It was given treatment and will be sent to the SPCA centre in Thane," added Khedekar.

Animal lover Suhas Pawar said "Keeping a monkey is not allowed, so the caretaker has set them loose. There are two more in Shahad and Kopar, roaming around. Some people have treated them well and fed them, while a few others have given them hashish and marijuana and alcohol."

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