In a tragic incident, a 17-year-old student in Pamuru in Andhra Pradesh's Prakasam district lost his life on Saturday, as he was trying to escape a monkey attack.
The deceased, identified as Bandaru Venkatesh, a resident of Chandrasekharapuram, was a second year Intermediate student at the Government Junior college in Pamuru.
The New Indian Express reported that during lunch break, Venkatesh was having snacks in his classroom, when a monkey that was loitering around the college premises, entered the classroom and began to approach Venkatesh.
According to reports, there were about 10 students in the classroom when the incident occurred.
As the children panicked and began running towards one out of two exits that the classroom had, the monkey was also thrown off by the chaos and started heading towards the exit.
As he was trying to escape, Venkatesh tripped, and hit his head against a bench. He was rushed to a private hospital, where he was declared brought dead.
His body was later shifted to a government hospital for post-mortem, and the Pamuru police have registered a case.
Locals said that the incident would not have taken place if the panchayat officials had taken steps to control the monkey menace, which the students in the college had been complaining about for long, the Times of India reported.
Several districts of Andhra Pradesh have faced a monkey menace earlier, for example the town of Nagari, Puttur and Chittoor in 2014.
At the time, medical practitioners had advocated for anti-rabies vaccination and the use of antibiotics, rather than resorting to applying of herbal pastes.
Last month, locals in Andhra’s Mothugudem village, who were facing a severe problem with a sharp rise in the monkey population, found a unique solution.
They placed stuffed Tiger toys every few hundred meters, and near all the houses, which made the monkeys believe that it was the real predator. Following this, they stopped visiting the village.