Peppy in mother’s lap – Langurs in Mandore

Well, this post was always on cards, ever since I did my other posts on langurs of Ranthambore some time back. There were two immediate provocations (inspirations I should say). One was a post from fellow blogger Mukul Chand on Langurs and second one an invite from the #Indiblogger to take part in the #IndiMarathon. I fully agree with Mukul Chand that langurs are a photographers’ delight and I have photographed them a lot, at many places. This post is about langurs of the Mandore Garden complex in Jodhpur.

Ancient name of Mandore was Mandavyapura and it was capital of Marwar till the foundation of Jodhpur in the middle of the 15th century. However existence of the old fort on the hill is traced back to 4th century.  Well, will discuss the history and architectural importance of Mandore in some other post. But Langurs are the important feature of Mandore Gardens.

Mandore gardens are home to these playful grey langurs. There is no concrete local word on how, when and why langurs made this complex as their home. But there is a large number of them since very long. The present generations of locals have been seeing them since they opened their eyes. In most parts of Rajasthan, actually you will find these Hanuman Langurs in large numbers as opposed to rhesus macaques (pink-faced monkeys) found more towards central parts of the country. People feed these langurs regularly and when hungry, they don’t hesitate to check travellers baggage at will (mostly if unattended). But they don’t look as aggressive as macaques of NCR region. They are more friendly. You can find them feeding vegetables carelessly.

But it has been always a delight to capture the innocence of the young ones in their mother’s lap. You can see that in the images above. So lively, so jubilant and so peppy! They are so oblivious of things happening around and just enjoy the own world (as do all the little ones across the planet). It was my field day photographing them.