A three-year-old boy has died after monkeys dropped a large rock on him from a rooftop.
Devunuri Abhinav was playing outside his parents’ house in Katukuri, a small village in Telangana State, India, when the monkeys rolled the high stone down onto him, killing him instantly.
The boy had only just recovered from an earlier freak accident six months ago, when he fell onto a knife that somehow cut his throat.
His parents, named locally in Katukuri village in Akkanapet as Rajitha and Srikanth, had paid Rs.5 lakh – or over $6,000 – for their child to undergo lifesaving surgery.
He had almost completely recovered from his ordeal when the primates caused him to be crushed to death, local media reports.
Locals had complained of nuisance from the monkeys for several years, as they had become increasingly aggressive.
Across India, the monkey menace has reached such a pitch that the authorities have been contemplating extreme measures, such as the release of a contraceptive vaccine to make the animals sterile.
The animals have been associated with several violent attacks in recent years.
In 2018, a 70-year-old man was stoned to death in Uttar Pradesh by a troop of monkeys that had reportedly collected bricks from a building side and hurled them at his head.
BJP MP Raj Kumar Chahar recently raised concerns in Parliament about the monkey menace.
He sought clarification on how much relief is afforded to monkey attack victims by the state.
