Mission Conservation: Gibbons & Monkey Charming
30-minutes, 2007
Ref: 606

Tracking the Hoolock Gibbon, the behavior and habits of this charismatic creature in the spectacular setting in the heart of India's North East…The North East of India is unexplored wilderness. Lush forests with predominantly tribal clans … even tourists need special permits to enter . As a result few people come here , leaving the hills untouched . We meet the endangered hoolock gibbon… No one has filmed the gibbon out here other than our researcher Dr. Alfred - former head of the Zoological survey of India. He takes us to see what ordinary people could only dream of ….we see the main gibbon territories and the different social groups, the hierarchies amongst these animals , the alpha male holding paternity over most of the young and teaching them ancient route of their ancestors . Little is known of these elusive primates which is why research is crucial to our understanding our ancestral relatives.
Population of Rhesus macaques in wild have seen a huge drop due to people kidnapping babies in a brutal bid to make money. These monkeys are then trained to dance and smoke for jeering tourists or even steal - used as thieves and pickpockets the monkeys have a sad life. Out of the wild they are thrown into a humanized existence - fed on chapattis, drinking alcohol and chained to their master. Snehal Bhutt has seen it all and is now rescuing the monkeys and returning them to their rightful home - the wild.