On Friday, Near Elanthur, on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka National highway, a monkey was killed in a road accident. The monkey’s baby sat near the mother-monkey’s carcass and cried.
This moved the onlookers to tears as well. The poor baby-monkey hugged her mother and tried to wake her up. Then the baby-monkey kept her ear to the chest of the mother-monkey. And soon the baby-monkey realized that the mother-monkey was dead. Then the baby monkey cried after this sad realization.
The villagers who were also upset, took the carcass of the dead monkey to a burial ground and performed the last rites for it. The baby monkey kept following the mother-monkey’s body en-route to the burial ground by jumping from tree to tree. When the final rites were performed the baby monkey was watching the entire proceedings from a distance. The final rites were performed in the presence of police and forest officials.
From elephants to monkeys we have seen that animals are no different from us humans. They too mourn their dead and it is time humans showed more compassion to these voiceless creatures. The villagers act of performing last rites for a monkey in a burial ground has received praise from several quarters.