Lawless monkey, helpless police: Monkey rams bus into two other vehicles

On 21 December, a monkey got behind the wheels of a parked Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) bus and drove off. Dozing off at the back of the said bus was the vehicle's driver.

The incident took place in Bareilly, and has sparked a fresh debate into the nuisance created by monkeys in the area. Talking about the problem, UPSRTC regional manager SK Sharma said that, "monkeys have become a regular menace at bus stations and workshops, where they often fiddle with vehicles undergoing repair. They have also damaged CCTV cameras at stations. Three years ago, we had taken the help of municipal authorities to get rid of them, but they have returned."

Municipal authorities have been requested to hire an agency to capture the monkeys in the area and release them elsewhere.

The key was left in the ignition, when the bus took a halt. The conductor of the bus was out, looking for passengers at the roadway station, and with half an hour to departure the driver decided to take a nap. That's when the monkey entered the bus, fired up the engine and zoomed off.

Waking up, the driver rushed to stop the bus but his efforts at chasing away the monkey sent it into panic mode; it leaped off the bus and accidentally shifted it into second gear. The bus rammed into two parked buses nearby before the driver managed to take control of the wheel.

The sight of a large passenger vehicle moving driver-less caused panic in the bus station but no human was hurt in the process. While physically, everyone remained unharmed, the same cannot be said of the egos that must have been crushed by the tale of the runaway monkey. It is definitely a story that's not going die away soon.