Namita, a middle-aged woman who lives in India’s north-eastern Tripura state and is a government worker, describes Buru, her pet monkey, as her third child.
“Yes, I breastfeed him. He is my son,” says Namita, caressing the monkey.
More than four years ago, her woodcutter husband found a dying baby monkey under a tree after a fierce storm. He brought the animal home in Chandrapur village on the outskirts of the Udaipur town in Tripura’s South District.
“The monkey fell ill after the storm in which it lost its parents. I decided to bring him up with my daughters,” says Namita.
