Karnataka langur, rescued from bar and addicted to liquor, passes away due to kidney-liver ailments

A langur named Raju, who used to live in the Pilikula Biological Park (PBP) at Mangalore, Karnataka, died on Sunday, 17 October. Earlier, the primate used to reside near a bar in Padubiri. The monkey got addicted to alcohol as a number of customers would often give him alcohol, leading him towards addiction. The langur’s post-mortem reports showed that there were problems in his liver and kidney, indicating that the consumption of liquor could be a possible cause of his death. The twenty-one-year old monkey’s viscera has been sent to a Bengaluru lab for further investigation. The langur was rescued from the bar by the PBP director HJ Bhandary and his team in 2005. The director received a call from the owner of the bar, stating that the langur was unwell and required treatment. The director said that when the langur was rescued and brought to the park, it showed withdrawal symptoms and did not eat any kind of food. He was addicted to liquor and was then put on treatment, which included consuming alcohol in certain small quantities for around 60 days. After a period of one month, the primate showed improvement and was not given any liquor. The hanuman langur had then begun eating normal foods like vegetables and fruits. It had also become a central attraction at the park The director of PBP said that the average lifespan of a langur is around 18 to 20 years and PBP is home to four langurs currently. This is not the first time when Karnataka has shown empathy towards langurs. In Karnataka’s Surashettikoppa, a female langur died due to electrocution in the month of August this year. The people of the village then performed a human-like burial of the monkey. The funeral included a mourning procession and the primate was cremated with proper Hindu rites after the mourning.