At least 10,000 monkeys have wreaked havoc in India's capital city of Delhi by taking over offices in government buildings. The primates have stolen food, threatened workers and shredded important documents. Although it is against traditional belief systems in India to kill monkeys, workers have taken to arming themselves with rocks and branches.

The aggressive monkeys swing between ministry offices in the departments of finance, defense and external affairs, and have also been seen in the prime minister's office. Defense Ministry officer I. K. Jha said, "They are moving in very high security areas."

Previously, authorities have addressed the problem by rounding up the monkeys and transporting them to outlying areas, but those regions are now also overpopulated with the primates.

Officials believe there is little that can be done to solve the problem, and many employees come to work fearing attacks. Government employee Surekha Rao said, "I am sometimes faced with groups of monkeys, big huge looking fellows."

Some people have suggested using birth control for the monkeys or creating a park for them. Animal rights activists believe the problem has stemmed from human overpopulation rather than the other way around. Animal rights advocate Iqbal Malik stated, "We have encroached on their homelands, we have taken away their fruits, we have reduced their water sources and we are trapping them from their home range, from their forests, so they are coming to urban areas."