MONKEY BUSINESS IN NEW DELHI

The fearsome-looking langur monkeys now patrol South Block, the magnificent red sandstone complex that houses the defense, external affairs and finance ministries - as well as the army headquarters and Delhi's main hospital - snarling menacingly at intruders. Each receives a salary of $32 a month, paid in bananas.

Monkeys have plagued Delhi's government offices and private houses for several years, raiding fridges, snapping power lines and taking free bus rides. Recently, though, the problem has become almost uncontrollable and several million rhesus monkeys swarm over the capital. At least 10,000 have taken up residence in South Block.

The army chief and his officers, as well as senior civil servants at adjoining ministries, now sit in caged rooms after files containing top secret documents were found strewn in corridors and power cables to computers containing sensitive data were snapped.

The langurs, which are extremely ferocious and attack other monkeys on sight, make their rounds each morning before the civil servants arrive with their tempting tiffin-carriers, or lunch-boxes. However, as temporary employees, unlike the horses, dogs and mules employed by the government, they have not been given the customary Indian civil service numbers.

Unfortunately, though, South Block's cheeky monkeys have decamped to New Delhi's main post office. The city's residents, who are already accustomed to losing large quantities of their mail through pilfering, have resigned themselves to yet more monkey business.