Meerut (Uttar Pradesh), Feb 20 (IANS): A young woman was attacked by a monkey, when she went to her terrace to take out clothes to dry.

The victim's brother, Farooq Ali, said, "In an attempt to save herself, she rushed downstairs, but the monkey followed her. She fell from the stairs and injured her face and legs. We took her to Delhi to get a rabies vaccine as it was not available in Meerut. She got 14 stitches on her face."

He said that the monkey attacked her without any provocation.

The incident has once again brought to the fore the monkey menace in the city. Even after several attempts by the forest department and the civic body, the population of monkeys in Meerut has shot up.

In various localities, people have trained langurs to shoo away the monkeys, but this does not seem to have had much of an impact. Two elderly persons also lost their lives due to monkey attacks in the last one year in the city.

Earlier, in Pilibhit, monkeys damaged 34 newly installed CCTV cameras in and around a poll control room.

Officials initially thought it was a case of "sabotage", but later found that a troop of monkeys were responsible for the damage.

"We had installed 52 new cameras at the complex where a strongroom holds EVMs and VVPAT machines. At least 34 such cameras were found damaged by monkeys. Now the social forestry division has deployed three teams to keep the simians at bay. Seven monkeys have been caught so far. Around 25 security personnel are also on guard round the clock. The EVMs & VVPATs are locked in a separate room and are safe," said additional district magistrate R.S. Gautam.