Monkey electrocuted, cremated in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor

BIJNOR: A ‘revered’ monkey that was electrocuted was cremated by a village in UP’s Bijnor district in accordance with Hindu tradition on the eve of Dussehra.
Residents of Maksoodpur village in Syohara block said the ongoing Ramlila performance and the spirit of Dussehra also inspired them to accord the simian a dignified send-off.
Residents garlanded the dead animal and formed a procession to carry it to the cremation grounds.Over 100 residents attended the last rites performed by a priest on the banks of Ramganga river on Thursday evening.
‘It lived in our village, there was an attachment’
A pyre was lit and all rituals that are observed after the death of a loved one were followed.
The monkey was electrocuted to death when it came in contact with a high-tension wire. It was taken to a veterinary hospital for treatment but could not survive.
Village resident and district panchayat member Jagveer Singh told TOI the village had a close bond with the monkey. “It lived in our village. We would give food to it every day. There was an attachment that we had developed with it,” he said.
Nripendra Ravi, village pradhan said the monkey had died at a time when the entire town was caught in “religious fervour”. “We have a Ramlila performance going on. Monkeys are associated with Lord Hanuman, so we decided to do the cremation with full Vedic rituals,” said the village pradhan. Notably, in August, nearly 3,000 residents of Kurdi village in UP’s Saharanpur had pooled in money to perform the terahvi of a beloved bull. A week before that, a condolence meet was held for a crocodile in Gujarat’s Vadodara.