While those travelling along  the Trongsa-Zhemgang highway may consider it a good omen to see langurs along the way, residents in the locality are fed up of the animal.

Residents of Bayling, Baling and Koshala in Langthel are complaining that the langurs are eating their crops like other wild animals.

The langurs, according to the residents, eat chillies, beans, orange and other fruits.

Farmers say these animals have become more destructive.

Tshering Zangmo, 53, from Baling village said the langurs never came near human settlement until five years ago. “But they have now started feeding on our crops.”

She said the langurs, which come in a troop, destroy everything in their garden.

Tshering, 62, said she has to guard her orchard and garden because the golden and grey langurs destroy the crops, vegetables and fruits.

“Langurs can’t peel and eat oranges like monkeys but they squeeze the juice by making a small opening,” she said.

Tshewangla, 64, from Duegang said only the langur who gets hit by stone runs away when people chase them. “It is difficult to chase them.”

Some village elders said they used to believe that the langurs chased monkeys from coming to their fields if they are found around their fields in the past. “But they also started causing menace now.”

Nima Wangdi | Langthel