Monkeys loot rice fields

Farmers in southern Thailand whose rice crops have been stolen by marauding monkeys have been deploying fake crocodiles to scare the raiders away, a local policeman said today.

The monkeys are not being scared away, but have been destroying the reptile scarecrows, said Police Sgt Kasen Sanlem.

Hundreds of monkeys from a forest are raiding rice fields in the Phae district of Satun province, 602 miles south of Bangkok, said Kasen, a district officer.

Kasem said his family’s farm was among those ransacked by the short-tailed monkeys, who have spent the past three weeks eating up his un-harvested crop.

About 100 other farmers nearby have the same problem, he said.

‘‘They (the monkeys) are not afraid of people at all because they outnumber us,’’ Kasem said.

Local belief holds that monkeys are scared of crocodiles, but for reasons unknown they weren’t cowed by the fake crocodiles some farmers placed in their fields.

The desperate farmers have asked the Forestry Department to help solve the problem