Macaque Monkeys Prove To Be Barrier To Rollout Of Internet Services In An Indian City

What are some of the obstacles that you can think of when it comes to the slowing down of an Internet rollout in a particular province or area? Well, some of us might cite cost issues, while others claim that there is no proper infrastructure in place to support such a roll out. Well, this is the best excuse yet – and a very valid one, as you can tell, as macaque monkeys are a menace in the northern Indian city of Varanasi, as these monkeys tend to chew on the fiber-optic cables that have been laid, which will definitely hamper the work of getting the city connected to high speed Internet.

So far, we have learned that the authorities over in Varanasi have been working to increase the network of optical fibre cables, since this happens to be part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan of to improve internet services throughout India. I guess part of the plan to roll out 700,000 km (435,000 miles) of broadband cable within three years so that India’s 250,000 village clusters will be connected needs to be put on hold, at least until this issue of macaque monkeys with an appetite for fiber-optic cables is solved

Communications engineer AP Srivastava, shared, “We cannot move the temples from here. We cannot modify anything here, everything is built up. The monkeys, they destroy all the wires and eat all the wires.”

Varanasi happens to be the parliamentary constituency of Mr Modi, and it is famous for being a holy city with the macaque monkeys considered as sacred by the locals. Hence, chasing these monkeys away is not a solution or an option, since it would stir up the anger of local residents. What to do then?

Edwin Kee
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: internet