The Monkey Man of New Delhi: India's Bigfoot

WELCOME VISITORS FROM INDIA!

We have been getting tons of visits from India lately and we wondered at the Bigfoot Lunch Club, "How can we return the appreciation?" What better way than to add Monkey Man to the AKA Bigfoot World Map and post a tribute to India's Monkey Man of New Delhi.

An an overview provided by Wikipedia:

In May 2001, reports began to circulate in the Indian capital New Delhi of a strange monkey-like creature that was appearing at night and attacking people. Eyewitness accounts were often inconsistent, but tended to describe the creature as about four feet (120 cm) tall, covered in thick black hair, with a metal helmet, metal claws, glowing red eyes and three buttons on its chest.
Theories on the nature of the Monkey Man ranged from an avatar of the Hindu god Hanuman, to an Indian version of Bigfoot.[1]
Many people reported being scratched, and two (by some reports, three) people even died when they leapt from the tops of buildings or fell down stairwells in a panic caused by what they thought was the attacker. At one point, exasperated police even issued artist's impression drawings in an attempt to catch the creature. Many today still believe this "monkey man" continues to haunt the streets.

Time Magazine even dedicated an article covering this 2001 phenomenon.

In India, where religion dominates lives and where many of the country's 330 million gods take the shape of animals, birds and demons, the supernatural is often fused with reality, and reason often gets plowed under by superstition. In frightened northern and eastern New Delhi, home to some 4 million people, no neighborhood is dark after sunset anymore. Power outages have been stopped as a result of the panic, and city politicians guarantee electricity will remain on around-the-clock until the monster is caught (or forgotten). Wandering bands of vigilantes guard neighborhoods with wooden cudgels, daggers, field-hockey sticks, ceremonial swords and pikes made from butchers' cleavers. They carry whistles around their necks to warn other neighborhoods of impending attack. In the early hours, police fire flares over cultivated ground to see if the Monkey Man is hiding in the darkness. The area's 500-strong police force has been tripled. Some legislators are demanding the central government send in Elite commandos to deal with what they call "the crisis." A bounty of $1,100 has been put on his head.

The man charged with playing Agent Mulder to track down the Monkey Man in northeast Delhi is Vivek Gogia, deputy commissioner of police. At 2.30 a.m. the radio in his curtained automobile crackles, setting him racing to Old Seemapuri, a warren of closely packed, illegally built two- and three-story dwellings crisscrossed with alleys. Every light in every building is on. Women and old men peer from balconies and roofs. The vigilantes men and boys huddle around, babbling excitedly. Singling out a tall man at the back of the crowd, Gogia asks what happened. "There was this shadow, sir," he replies.

And as a final litmus test to determine the Monkey Man of New Delhi we have The Animated TV Series the Simpsons. Apu's wife says to her divorce lawyer: "No offense, but you remind me of the monkey man who slaughtered my family's chickens".

Disclaimer: We neither condone or endorse the stereotype of Apu in The Simpsons. We even found a link that asks, "How do Indians feel about the stereotypical portrayal of Apu in The Simpsons?"


View AKA Bigfoot World Map in a larger map

Learn More about The Monkey Man of New Delhi at Wikipedia
Read an article about The Monkey Man of New Delhi at Time Magazine

Thank you India for your support!the Bigfoot Lunch Club Salutes You!