Thieving monkey bound and caged in Mumbai

The captured monkey, its arms tied tightly behind its back, sits crouched over in a Mumbai residential colony trying with its teeth to untie the cord bound around its ankles.

But this primate -- caught just moments ago by a professional monkey catcher in India's commercial capital -- isn't going anywhere for a while, other than straight into a cage.

The wild macaque was caged after locals said it had been causing a nuisance for more than six months, including stealing food and tearing up pillows that were on sale in one of the colony's shops.

It was one of three or four monkeys to have been tearing around the community in the western city's Sion area and residents recently complained to a local municipal councillor about the unwelcome guests.

Monkeys, who are revered in Hindu-majority India, often trash gardens, offices, residential rooftops and even attack people viciously for food -- but are rarely subjected to such public humiliation.

When locals spotted one of the primates on Friday morning they called a monkey catcher who hot-footed it to the housing block and laid a trap with fruit.

Local residents gathered round and cheered as bandages were tied around the macaque's wrists and elbows and a rope was put around its neck.

At one point a passerby patted it on the forehead, only for the monkey to hiss aggressively before showing him a full set of sharp teeth.

Later the shackles were removed from the monkey and it was placed in the cage, where it ate grapes and looked forlornly at the crowd of staring onlookers.

The monkey is now set for a new life in the countryside north of Mumbai.

"We will make sure it's fit and when it is we will release him on the outskirts of Thane," an official in the Maharashtra state forest department told AFP.