{
  "id": 987015,
  "title": "No monkey business: India 'whisperers' guard world championships",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/15/no-monkey-business-india-whisperers-guard-world-championships",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-15T07:35:47.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Yahoo Sports",
    "slug": "yahoo-sports",
    "url": "https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/no-monkey-business-india-whisperers-073547911.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "As top badminton players converge on New Delhi for the world championships, an unexpected group has been brought in to guard the event: monkey whisperers. Nazar Khan, a 65-year-old expert, leads a team of four men tasked with preventing rhesus macaques from interrupting the tournament at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium. The venue's history of monkey-related disturbances, including a breach during the India Open in January, has led organizers to seek assistance. Khan explains that their methods, passed down through generations, involve mimicking the calls of langurs, monkeys' natural enemies, to deter the smaller primates. Despite a court ruling banning the use of trained langurs, Khan and his team continue to rely on their expertise and creative use of animal noises. The team also handles stray dogs and ensures no harm comes to the animals they manage. While some find the solution amusing, badminton star P.V. Sindhu defends the approach, drawing parallels to Wimbledon's use of a hawk to deter pigeons. Tournament officials are confident that the diverse measures, including the deployment of monkey whisperers, will prevent any disruptions during the world championship.",
  "summary": "As top badminton players descend on New Delhi for the world championships, an unusual band of men have their eyes fixed not on the stars, but on monkeys lurking around.Determined to avoid a repeat of the embarrassment, organisers have turned to a popular fix for the problem -- \"monkey wallahs\" or men who imitate the calls of langurs, the natural enemy of the smaller primates.",
  "key_points": [
    "65-year-old Nazar Khan leads monkey whisperers team",
    "Mimicking langurs' calls to deter rhesus macaques",
    "Tournament officials confident in diverse disruption prevention"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}