Monkeys Can’t Stop Eating India’s Delicious Fibre Optic Cables

Monkeys Can’t Stop Eating India’s Delicious Fibre Optic Cables

Right now, India’s in the middle of launching a massive, $US18 billion plan to finally bring the country’s shoddy internet up to speed. There’s just one little problem: Adorable monkeys just can’t stop eating its delicious, delicious data cables.

Specifically, its the 3000 year-old holy city of Varanasi that’s having the hardest time getting an internet overhaul, since its many temples are home to hoards of (presumably) hungry, tech-hating macaque monkeys. And since the monkeys are seen as sacred, chasing them away is apparently out of the question. As a communications engineer for the project told Reuters:

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.

The team even had to replace some of the wires less than two-months after they were installed because those goddamn monkeys couldn’t help themselves.

While the engineers are currently looking for alternative, prospects are bleak. According to Reuters, “The city of over two million people is impossibly crowded and laying underground cable is out of the question.”

Another options? Stop making your cables so delicious. [Reuters]

Image of Japanese monkey gnawing on electrical conduit via Flickr


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