Hyderabad, March 25 -- In a bid to guard crops from monkeys in Morampalli Banjar village of Bhadradri Kothagudem district, gram panchayat secretary, M Bhavani, came up with a novel idea.

Instead of deploying scarecrows, which have proved ineffective, Bhavani along with her staff put on gorilla costumes and went to fields to chase monkeys away.

Surprisingly, the plan proved successful, as the people wore gorilla costumes, which prompted the monkeys to run back into the forest.

The secretary said that she had been receiving numerous complaints from villagers about the monkey menace, causing her to give this issue the utmost importance.

"Initially, I considered hiring monkey catchers, but upon realizing that it did not work as expected i...