Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
especially in Uttar Pradesh. Following the research and development of polio
vaccine, the use and export of rhesus from India declined by 1970, and the
population began to stabilize and even show slight signs of growth. This indi-
cated that the rhesus population could sustain trapping and export of rhesus in
the range of 20,000-25,000 per year, but not 100,000.
Nevertheless, the international agreement that rhesus would be used only for
humane biomedical research, specifically excluding defense-related and space
research, came into focus when the United States used rhesus for both military
and space research. Rhesus were used for military trauma, burn, wound, and
radiation research, and also in sub-orbital space flights. This became known to
the Government of India in the administration of Prime Minister Moraji Desai
in the late 1970s, and he closed all rhesus export, considering the military and
space uses of rhesus not only a violation of the international agreement, but
also a violation of Hindu ethics. In April 1978 all rhesus export from India
was halted, although modest numbers of rhesus were still used for biomedical
research in India.
Shortly after the cessation of rhesus export, the rhesus populations of India
began to increase markedly. This increase was shown in both our Aligarh
District population studies, and in broader national studies (Southwick and
Siddiqi,
1988
).
Aligarh District population
In the 1960s, our Aligarh District population declined from 403 rhesus in 22
groups to 175 in only ten groups. These were mainly rural agricultural and
village groups in an area of approximately 10,000 sq. km., and did not include
Aligarh temple groups. In the 1970s, with reduced trapping for export, this
population remained at ten groups, but increased to 275 monkeys. Since 1979,
however, this population has increased almost three-fold to 744 (
Figure 11.2
),
even though it has declined in the number of groups to just eight. The average
group size increased from 18.3 in 1962 to 93.0 in 2008. The reason for the loss
of groups, from 22 to ten, and subsequently from ten to eight, accompanied by
a great increase in group size was that some groups were no longer tolerated by
local people and were trapped or driven away, whereas the other groups were
tolerated, even protected and fed, and given free-rein to increase.
Since 1979, the annual increase of our Aligarh population has averaged 4.2
percent, varying from a yearly decrease of 10.2 percent to an increase of 21.8
percent. In the 1960s when trapping and export of rhesus were common, the
annual rate of population change was negative, -8.4 percent, varying from
+12.3 percent in just one year to -19.7 percent.
