Meet The Mother Who Breastfeeds Pet monkey

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.
Sibling
Her daughters, Dipti and Tripiti, treat the monkey
as a sibling.
“We tie rakhi (a sacred thread) on Buru’s wrists
during the Indian festival when sisters wish their
brothers well,” says Dipti, the elder of the
two. Namita and her husband manage to earn
around $100 together every month and barely
manage to make ends meet.
But that does not deter Namita from spending to
bring up the monkey. It is not uncommon for poor
rural families in Tripura to keep pets, but Namita is
visibly upset when a photographer calls the monkey
a pet.
“This is not a pet, this is my son. Please get that
right,” she insists. ”I did not have a son. God finally
gave me one,” says Namita, as she continued to
breastfeed the monkey.
When asked if she had been breastfeeding Buru-
who is around five years old- for too long she
replied: ”I will continue to breastfeed him as long
as he wants it. He will always remain a little one for
me.”
She says she also feeds her pet monkey “expensive
cow milk” which she could not afford for her
children.
‘Abnormal’
Many Indian mothers pamper their sons and give
them what is denied to daughters. They believe the
family is not complete without a son and crave for
one, but it is rare for anyone to adopt a
monkey. Namita’s neighbours find her behaviour
with the monkey “somewhat abnormal”. ”We keep
pets but to treat a monkey as a human or as your
own child is not normal,” says Subal Paul of
Chandrapur village.
Another neighbour Ramesh Sil says Namita is
“overdoing her affection for the monkey”.
Buru generally stays home but is often seen on the
roof of neighbours’ homes, stealing bananas.
The neighbours complain but Namita refuses to put
Buru in chains.
“Our pets are in chains, but this monkey is far too
pampered,” says Meena Das, a relative.
But all this does not deter Buru’s doting ‘mother’.
“I don’t care what they say. Buru is my son,” she
says.