Sunday, 03 November 2024
Sunday, 03 November 2024
A gang of monkeys reportedly saved a six-year-old girl from a sexual assault attempt in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat recently.
According to the child’s parents, the child was playing when the man lured her into an abandoned house.
While he tried to assault the child, a group of godsent monkeys jumped into the scene and chased the man away. “My daughter would have been dead by now if the monkeys had not intervened”, the girl’s father was quoted as saying by The Times of India.
The incident has invoked a plethora of reactions on social media – some call it an intervention by Lord Hanuman, while several others think animals have more "humanity" than humans.
“Animals pick up on scents and vibrations," says Sreelekha Mitra, Tollywood actor and lover of animals. “Animals are not fake, unlike humans," she says.
Others say it's just anthropomorphism.
The monkeys did end up saving the child; whether they intended to be heroes is something we will never know.
On that note, let’s take you on an anecdotal ride where animals have come to the rescue of humans in the nick of time, for motives unknown.
Elephants 'guard' family during Wayanad landslide
Kerala saw one of history’s deadliest landslides and floods caused by heavy rains just a couple of months ago, with hundreds – the numbers vary from 231 to over 400 – dead and several injured and missing.
On one such night of disaster, Sujatha Aninachira was faced with an experience that would remain etched in her heart forever.
Sujatha's house was destroyed and her son, daughter and daughter-in-law were trapped under the rubble. She pulled out her granddaughter by her little finger, covered her in a cloth and swam to safety. Eventually, after a lot of struggle, the entire family reached a hilltop in search of a safe space when they saw a tusker and two female elephants inching close to them.
Sujatha, already fatigued, burst into tears and pleaded with the mammoths not to harm them. To her surprise, Sujatha later recounted to reporters including from PTI, the giant came close and stood silently as tears rolled down its eyes. The elephants stood by them all night until they were rescued in the wee hours of the following morning, she said.
“Social behaviour of male and female elephants greatly vary, especially during human interactions," explains Sitangshu Das, biodiversity officer at the Nature Environment & Wildlife Society, an NGO in Calcutta.
"Females generally do not attack unless they feel threatened. However, males are unpredictable and aggressive in nature. In this particular incident, the only tusker could be a sub-adult, and with the humans in distress and a child in sight, the motherly instinct might have taken over that made the female elephants protect them. Moreover, there is a high possibility that the rain had washed away the natural human scent,” he adds.
Lions 'save' girl from kidnappers in Africa
In 2005, a 12-year-old Ethiopian girl was abducted on her way home from school. She was kidnapped and beaten with an aim to be forced into marriage with one of the abductors. After a week of going missing, the police were finally on a mission to rescue her. While on the run, the kidnappers came face-to-face with three African lions that chased them away.
When police eventually found the girl, she was shocked and terrified but unharmed. Sergeant Wondmu Wedaj told the BBC that once the cops reached the scene, the big cats swiftly departed.
“Animals sense energies. So, even if they do not specifically understand the nature of a situation, they can sense the tension, which may trigger them to get involved to defuse it,” says Akshaya V Kawle, Mumbai-based author and "animal communicator" who helps people when their animals have behavioural issues or are at the end of their lives.
However, lion experts were sceptical over the interpretation of the incident as one of benevolence by the lions. One group said that the big cats were probably preparing to eat the child but were intercepted. Another group said that the crying of the girl might have been similar to that of the mewing of a cub which made the lions protect her.
Stray dog carries abandoned baby in Lebanon
Yes, it also happens in Lebanon. A stray dog found a baby in a garbage dump outside a government building in Tripoli. The dog carried the baby to safety, as reported by the tabloid New York Post in July 2023.
While it was carrying the black garbage bag, a passerby heard stifled cries. He managed to take the bag from the dog, to discover a child inside.
With bruises all over her body, the baby was rushed to hospital. Security services and judicial authorities were informed and she was transferred to Tripoli Governmental Hospital where the doctors diagnosed her condition as serious but stable.
As the matter started getting attention, netizens jumped right in to react. Some called the abandoners ‘cruel’ and ‘heartless’, others heaped praises on the hero dog, while many offered to adopt the child.
Ghassan Rifi, a journalist in Tripoli, wrote, “But in all cases, the dog that dragged her was more humane in the face of the brutality and criminality of the one who threw her.”
Sea lion 'saves' man who jumps off Golden Gate Bridge
John Kevin Hines, a motivational speaker, helps people battling mental health issues and suicidal thoughts. And he insists it's all because of a sea lion that saved him on the day he jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.
In 2000, the 19-year-old Kevin, suffering from bipolar disorder, jumped off the bridge to immediately regret his decision as he hit the frigid waters. Severely injured, he gave his all to undo the mistake, when something brushed by his feet. It was a sea lion! Circling beneath him, bumping him up to keep him afloat until help arrived.
He was finally rescued by the Coast Guard. Kevin revealed that he didn’t know of the identity of his life-saver until he featured on ABC’s Primetime with John Quinones, where a caller who was also an eye-witness to the incident, informed him about the creature.
