Several years ago, the celluloid Dunston checked into a luxury hotel; his mates in Patiala could now end up being put through finishing school.

The Punjab government has sought clearance from the Central Zoo Authority to set up an ultra-modern facility to tame, train, rehabilitate and teach manners to rogue monkeys. It has identified a location on Dakala Road in Patiala, and sanctioned Rs 1 crore for a 100-monkey ‘resource-cum-rehabilitation centre’.

The first-of-its-kind monkey school will provide inmates with medical care and good-behaviour training. “In addition to veterinary doctors the centre will have experts and it would be a sort of good manners school for the monkeys,” said a senior official of the Punjab wildlife department.

Minister for Forests and Wildlife Tikshan Sud said the case file has already been sent to the Central Zoo Authority. “We will build a state of the art centre that will have good facilities for monkeys and their treatment,” Sud said.

Officials said rogue monkeys have been running riot in Punjab — especially in the area around Patiala — chasing and attacking residents, injuring them and snatching their belongings. Complaints with civic bodies and Divisional Forest Offices have been pending mainly because there is nowhere the animals can be kept after they are caught.

The site for the new monkey school already has a small zoo run by the

forest department. “This entire area is full of hundreds of monkeys who cause inconvenience to residents,” said a wildlife official. “We have over 65,000 monkeys in Punjab, around a fourth of whom live in and around Patiala,” said another official.

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