Locals prepare a cage in Jorhat on Wednesday to catch the monkey. Picture by UB Photos

Jorhat, May 23: A nourishing meal of fruits served for lunch to students of Balya Bhawan School in the heart of the town here has attracted the attention of a monkey which has been snatching food from children and even scratched two of them yesterday.

The forest department put up a cage at the school today to catch the rhesus macaque which has been on the prowl near the Rajmao pukhuri and Olympic-sized swimming pool here.

Jorhat forest ranger Pankaj Kolita said they hoped that the monkey could be lured into the cage with bananas and apples and could later be released at a suitable animal habitat.

Students of Balya Bhawan are served a seasonal fruit and bread or patties for lunch by the school and are not allowed to carry their own lunch.

The monkey snatches food from children’s hands at times, but usually roams the empty grounds after school hours to pick up leftovers.

Mukul Hazarika, a teacher of the school, said after yesterday’s incident, the children are afraid that the monkey may attack again.

“Earlier it used to grab food from the children during lunch time and at times chase them. But yesterday, it attacked two kindergarten students when they had gone to the toilet,” Hazarika said.

It also created a ruckus on the residential campus of district administrative officials last night.

Tankeswar Gayan, a staff of the forest department here, said in 2008-09, they had caught a mischievous monkey which had created terror in the Cinnamara area.

It had attacked and bitten three children and two women, forcing the forest department to issue a shoot order against it.

“One day, while on its trail we saw it wiping off foam from the head of a girl shampooing herself in a open bathroom and sniffing it. We then decided that it should not be shot and put up a cage to catch it. It was later released in the Gibbon wildlife sanctuary,” Gayan said.