Monkeys mourn their leader

BALASORE: You may call it animal instinct, but it was a gesture no less than that of humans. In a rare show of affection, a group of monkeys mourned the death of their leader in a road accident near Gandibeda bazaar in Balasore district on Thursday afternoon. Nearly 20 apes blocked the Kupari-Soro road for over two hours soon after accident. They threw branches on the road and screamed loudly at the passersby. They even attacked the forest officials when they tried to take the carcass away. “We had to wait for over an hour. It was only after they started leaving the spot that we could retrieve the carcass,” said Oupada forester Sunil Kumar Singh. It was a rare sight and we have never come across anything like this before, he added.