The road points like an arrow towards the hills. Amidst fallow fields and coconut farms, flanked by rows of grand tamarind trees, it takes a curve at a little rise. From here, the wide panorama of hills ahead is blue-grey and inviting.

  • Natural food: a bonnet macaque eating Sterculia fruit (Photo: by Kalyan Varma)
  • Stuffed into cheek pouches
  • Bonnet macaque on flowering Cassia fistula tree.
  • Nibbling on Stereospermum pods in the tree canopy (Photo: MD Madhusudan)
  • Family by the road: sisters or friends?
  • Killing with kindness: feeding monkeys is harmful in many ways and may lead to their death.
  • Escaping traffic
  • Garbage and waste by the road near Monkey Falls in Anamalai Tiger Reserve

… This post first appeared in The Hindu Sunday Magazine on 10 July 2011 and on the Rainforest Revival blog on 27 July 2011. Read more in The Wild Heart of India: Nature and Conservation in the City, the Country, and the Wild.