All the mammals have distinctive characters. But their commonness is that they can feed their babies and give them all care and affection.
The mammals are the only animals in the universe that have milk producing glands through which they feed their youngs. They have hairs in their bodies. Similarly, every mammal has a skeleton or a backbone.
Another uniqueness of the mammals is that they like the social way of living. They live within the society. Man is a mammal who is also a social being and always prefers to live within the society. Again every animal society has a definite territory as good as the men possess and without society no mammal, whether animal or human being, can survive.
Psychologically every mammal is bound to remain in a family. Modern man has become greedy and self-centred, but animals are not so. Growing selfishness of man spoils the socio- cultural fabrics.
Here the writer would like to state that people from foreign countries are utilizing our youngsters to run nursery of terrorists in our own land and they are targeting to utilize the same terrorists against our country. On the contrary, we have no unified fight against such saboteurs who are planning for destruction of our whole nation. How long will we remain silent and become a mute spectator of such sabotage activitiesIJ A nation can be healthy if its citizens are healthy. Probably we have to learn discipline and community life from the animals to help us do works for the well-being of the society.
The mammals are most intelligent animals of the world. Similarly, man is the most intelligent within the mammals. But ironically, man lacks unity and refuses to be governed by the call of conscience these days and is causing all sorts of disturbances for him and the society at large.
There are eleven types of primates in our country. Out of them, two types of primates are found in Odisha. These are rhesus macaque and common langur.
Rhesus macaque is also called as Patimankada in Odia but in Hindi it is known as Bandar and Markata in Bengali. The male Pati weighs about 7 -10kg, when the female about 5 -6 kg. The height of the male is about 2.60 feet and that of the female is a bit less. The Pati species is found right from coastal plain to the Himalayan ranges. They are always noticed both in dense forests and in human habitats throughout India. The monkey is also found in Burma and adjoining countries of India. The species lives in large troop and is always found in villages, towns, groves, around the tanks and temples. Similarly, the monkey is usually found within the outskirts of forests. Especially in places like temples, railways platforms and in crowded public areas, the Pati monkeys create much nuisance. They accept food from pilgrims and passengers and also snatch food from people.
Rhesus monkeys always feed on ground and usually steal food like vegetables and fruits from gardens during morning and evening hours. The rhesus is found in Himalayan lands where it looks more handsome. They have luxuriant furs, which protect them from severe winter. The rhesus is a good swimmer. In Sundervans mangrove forests near river Ganges and Hooguli the rhesus families are found in smaller sizes and their habitats are quite different from other places of India. Similarly, the size of rhesus monkey is quite smaller than the common rhesus of Indian subcontinent. The rhesus monkeys of the Sundervans eat fish and crab but nowhere in other parts of India, do the same monkeys show this food habit. This is unique habit of rhesus in the Sundervan habitats.
This species is more disciplined in their family life and never are there fights between the members of a troop for any reason except in mating period. There is always competition between the males to win the bride rhesus. The babies are always protected by the female members of the troops.
Our civilized man should learn civil discipline from the rhesus macaque. There is always a sense of neighbourhood watch. The neighbourhood watch means a scheme in which the members of a community agree to take joint responsibilities for keeping a watch on each others’ properties. The self centeredness and individual interest of man spoils the neighbourhood watch and leads to all sorts of heinous crimes like murder, loot, theft, rape so on and so forth. It is happening because we have lost our troop ideology.
As there is nothing to eat for these animals within the forests, they generally congregate in human habitations and are forced to damage the orchards and fruit crops. Now, they are becoming more domesticated and becoming more prone to human rage. So, proper management plan of the primate species should be done by the State Government. Amazingly this species is not found in the list of mammals in schedules and part- 1 of Wildlife Protection Act1972.