Monkey holds up IGI operations for hours

New Delhi: Birds are not the only wildlife IGI Airport has to contend with. After a recent incident when a dog bit a passenger at the international airport, a monkey caused operations to be stalled for a few hours on Sunday.

According to airport sources, the monkey was spotted by passengers and CIFS officials
at the international airports security hold area about 5pm consequently, gates 10 and 11 were closed for a few hours. The team from Wildlife SOS was called in to take care of this ‘unusual visitor’ and till late evening, the simian lay hidden “somewhere and managed to evade capture”. Said Kartick Satyanarayan from Wildlife SOS: “The monkey had apparently been frequenting the airport for a few weeks now and has been found staying between the false and actual ceiling. But we have not been able to capture him since there is a huge tangle of wires there. We got a call in the evening and have been trying to trap the animal since then.

While this may have seemed amusing to some, the monkeys surprise visit could have caused problems from finance minister P Chidambaram and about 10 VIP s traveling
With him abroad jet airways inaugural flight to Brussels on Saturday night.

According to sources, gates 10and 11 are usually used for VIP movement   due to their proximity to the VIP boarding gates. Till last Know, entry through these gates had been denied even to the VIPs due to the monkey scare.