Angry Lopburi people put up banners to protest DNP chief

Local residents put up several banners around the ancient Phra Prang Khaek site in Tambon Tha Hin on Sunday in protest after DNP director general Atthapol Charoenchansa said the monkeys had become aggressive because residents had teased and harassed them.

The growing populations of macaques in Lopburi’s downtown has been a troubling issue for decades.

The aggressive monkeys often stole food from local residents and tourists and even bit tourists. Local residents had to protect themselves by building cages around their houses to prevent the monkeys from breaking in.

Many shops and houses have been deserted as people could not tolerate regular attacks by the hungry monkeys.

The protest banners include one that says, “Help, monkeys caused Lopburi’s town to be deserted by half.”

Another banner says: “Monkeys destroyed Lopburi town but someone lied that they benefited the town.”

Residents said that after people put up the signs in protest, the provincial governor called local officials to tell the residents to remove them because a Senate committee would visit the province on Monday to observe the situation.

However, the residents refused to remove the protest signs.

One of their leaders, Phairoj Lueyam, 58, said the residents would consider putting up more protest banners.

He said that so far many signs had been put up near the ancient Phra Prang Khaek site, in front of the Lopburi Court and in front of a Krungthai Bank branch.

He said some banners were torn down by monkeys, so the local residents would put up more later on Monday.

He said the DNP has promised to catch and remove the monkeys, but nothing has been done.

During the past few weeks, the DNP deployed officials to catch some aggressive macaques after their attacks against local residents and tourists but the operations netted few of the animals.