Kindness brings monkeys closer. The city wants distance

A longtime Margalla volunteer remembers a family arriving in the hills with desi-ghee parathas brought from their village.

They had brought them specifically for the monkeys.

The volunteer suggested another destination for breakfast.

Why not give the parathas to him instead?

The joke was accepted. Breakfast remained earmarked for wildlife.

There are easier prohibitions to explain. A cigarette beside dry grass looks dangerous. A plastic bottle on a trail looks like litter. A paratha held towards a monkey looks remarkably like kindness.

That is part of the problem facing the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board. Its instruction is simple. Do not feed wild animals. Repeated feeding encourages rhesus macaques to associate people with food and approach them accordingly. The visitor, meanwhile, has an........

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