Monkey Man

Police artist's impression of the Monkey Man of New Delhi

The Monkey Man of New Delhi is a monster which was reported roaming Delhi in 2001.

Overview

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.

The entire incident has been described as an example of mass hysteria.

Specific incidents

• On May 13, 2001, 15 people suffered injuries ranging from bruises to bites and scratches.^[1]
• On May 15, 2001, a pregnant woman fell down some stairs fleeing after neighbors shouted that they had seen the Monkey Man.
• A four foot tall wandering Hindu sadhu was beaten up by an angry mob who mistook him for the Monkey Man.
• On May 18, 2001, a van driver was set upon and sustained multiple fractures in another case of mistaken identification as Monkey Man.
• On May 21, 2001, the Monkey Man was seen in a Suga Babe concert in New Delhi and attacked one of the members, Heidi Range.
• On May 25, 2001, the monkey man was seen eating rubish outside fenfen's house and crawling on the street making strange sounds as if looking for a mate. Jo was one of the victims of the monkey man sighting around the area, suffering many cuts and slashes by his claws, which were described by Jo as made of metal.
• Further sightings were reported in Kanpur in February 2002 and New Delhi in July 2002, the latter describing a monkey-like machine that sparkled red and blue lights.^[1]

In popular culture

The appearance of Monkey man in Old Delhi is the centre-point of the 2009 Hindi film Delhi-6 directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. In the film, the creature (named "Kala Bandar") is used as an allegory to represent the evil that resides inside every man alongside God (virtue).

In an episode of 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".

See also

• Collective hysteria
• Magical thinking
• Superstition
• Spring Heeled Jack

References

External links

• Sanal Edamaruku's first hand report on Monkey man
• To catch the phantom - Anita Joshua's article in The Hindu
• Time article about the Monkey man
• Strangemag story
• Flakmag story
• Verma SK, Srivastava DK. A study on mass hysteria (monkey men?) victims in East Delhi. Indian J Med Sci 2003;57:355-60