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Monkeys 'hinder India internet drive'

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Monkeys 'hinder India internet drive' - BBC News

Monkeys 'hinder India internet drive'

Macaque monkeys appear to have become an unlikely roadblock in the development of internet services in the northern Indian city of Varanasi.

The authorities in Varanasi have been increasing the network of optical fibre cables as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plan of improving internet services in India.

The federal government has planned to lay 700,000 kms (434,960 miles) of broadband cable to connect India's 250,000 village clusters within three years.

But officials in the city in Uttar Pradesh state are struggling to stop monkeys from eating the fibre-optic cables, the Reuters news agency reports.

"We cannot move the temples from here. We cannot modify anything here, everything is built up. The monkeys, they destroy all the wires and eat all the wires," communications engineer AP Srivastava told the news agency.

Varanasi, which is also the parliamentary constituency of Mr Modi, is know as as a holy city and millions visit its famous banks along the Ganges river every year.

Many such tourists, and even locals, consider macaque monkeys sacred and often feed them.

Mr Srivastava told the news agency that his team was now looking for alternatives, but there are few to be found.

Varanasi is a crowded city and its infrastructure has hardly changed in the past decades.

Houses and building are too close to each other, making it difficult for authorities to consider laying underground cables.

And chasing away the monkeys is also not an option because it may anger local residents.

BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.
 
Why are Macaques eating fiber optic cable ? A fiber-optic cable is made up of 100 or more incredibly thin strands of glass or plastic known as optical fibers. What is so tasty for the monkeys ? The scientist can easily find out and use alternative polymers.
 
Why are Macaques eating fiber optic cable ? A fiber-optic cable is made up of 100 or more incredibly thin strands of glass or plastic known as optical fibers. What is so tasty for the monkeys ? The scientist can easily find out and use alternative polymers.

The coating that optical cables are in. Coatings are plant-based now so they appear Delicious to animals.
 
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