Mammal · Macaca mulatta

Rhesus macaque: India's temple monkey and how to share a ghat with it

बंदर (bandar)

IUCN LC · Least concern

The rhesus macaque is the brown monkey with a pink face and a short tail that you meet on temple steps, ghats and footbridges across North India. Treated as Hanuman's kin, it is fed rather than chased away, so troops around pilgrimage sites have no fear of people and have learned to take food, glasses and phones. They are not usually dangerous if you keep your distance and your hands empty, but they bite when grabbed or cornered.

A stocky brown monkey with a pink face and a short tail. Its troops gather wherever food moves.

👀 How to recognise it

Short tail, under half the body length, brown-grey coat with orange tones over the rump, bare pink face. The troops move along parapets, wires and shop awnings rather than through trees.

Where to see it

Govardhan

Offerings are made all along the circuit and the macaques have built their day around it, moving from one shrine to the next as the food arrives. They are fed rather than driven off, so they have no wariness of people at all.

Govardhan Hill & Parikrama Marg · Mansi Ganga

Mathura

The macaque is treated as Hanuman's kin and is fed rather than driven off, so the animals have no fear of people at all. Mathura's troops have learned that a paper bag or a sweet box is worth taking, and that a held-out phone or a pair of glasses can be traded back. In Mathura the troops concentrate in the Janmasthan lanes, by the sweet shops and on the steps of Vishram Ghat.

Vishram Ghat · Krishna Janmasthan Temple · Raman Reti, Gokul

Vrindavan

Monkeys are fed and left alone here because Vrindavan is Krishna's grove, and the town has lived alongside its troops for centuries. Vrindavan's macaques have also learned one very specific trade: taking spectacles, phones and bottles, then waiting nearby to swap them for food.

Banke Bihari Mandir · Vrindavan Parikrama Marg · Keshi Ghat

Agra

Fed at Hanuman temples, which is why troops concentrate around them. Feeding is what makes the animals bold, so the temples that discourage it have calmer monkeys.

Taj Nature Walk · Mehtab Bagh (often) · Ram Bagh (Aram Bagh) (often)

Dehradun

Fed at Hanuman temples, which is why troops concentrate around them. Feeding is what makes the animals bold, so the temples that discourage it have calmer monkeys.

Robber's Cave (Gucchupani) · Sahastradhara · Dehradun Zoo (Malsi Deer Park)

Haridwar

The stairways up to Haridwar's two hill shrines are the busiest macaque ground in the town, because pilgrims carry prasad up them. Troops there are practised at taking a packet out of an open hand.

Har Ki Pauri · Mansa Devi · Rajaji National Park, Chilla

Jaipur

Galta Ji's tanks have been a Vaishnava pilgrimage site since the sixteenth century, and feeding the monkeys there is part of the visit. That habit is exactly what makes them bold.

Galta Ji (Monkey Temple) · Nahargarh Biological Park (often)

Mussoorie

Fed at Hanuman temples, which is why troops concentrate around them. Feeding is what makes the animals bold, so the temples that discourage it have calmer monkeys.

Camel's Back Road · Company Garden (Atal Udyan) · Gun Hill

Pushkar

The rhesus and the langur are both protected by association with Hanuman, and around a pilgrimage lake that protection is absolute: nobody chases them off, so the troops have no reason to be shy.

Pushkar Lake · Naga Pahar (Snake Mountain) (often)

Rishikesh

The two footbridges over the Ganga are the busiest macaque ground in Rishikesh. Troops there work the railings and the shopfronts, and have learned exactly what a food packet looks like.

Lakshman Jhula & Ram Jhula · Vashishta Gufa (often) · Neer Garh Waterfall (often)

Ujjain

Fed at Hanuman temples, which is why troops concentrate around them. Feeding is what makes the animals bold, so the temples that discourage it have calmer monkeys.

Dewas Tekri (Mata Tekri) · Shipra River and Shri Ram Ghat (often)

Varanasi

Mark Twain described the monkeys at the Durga temple in Following the Equator (1897): being sacred, they “make themselves very free, and scramble around wherever they please.”

Durga Temple · Sarnath Deer Park (often)

How to recognise a rhesus macaque

A stocky brown-grey monkey, about 47–53 cm long without the tail, with orange tones over the rump and a bare pink face. The tail is short, roughly 21–23 cm, less than half the body length. Adults weigh about 5–8 kg, males more than females. Troops move along parapets, wires and shop awnings rather than through trees, and stuff food into cheek pouches to eat later.

Two other monkeys are easy to confuse with it:

Northern plains grey langur: tall, slender and silver-grey, with a black face and a tail longer than its body. It eats leaves and does not raid bags.
Bonnet macaque: the brown macaque of South India, with a whorl of hair on the crown that parts like a cap. The two ranges overlap only in a zone on the east coast.

✅ Is the rhesus macaque dangerous? How to keep your things

Feeding is what makes macaques bold: troops at temples that discourage it are calmer. In Vrindavan and Mathura the monkeys have learned a very specific trade, taking spectacles, phones and bottles and then waiting nearby to swap them back for food. Most trouble is avoidable.

Put things away — Glasses in a pocket, phone in a closed bag, water bottle and sweets inside the bag, especially in temple lanes and on ghat steps.
Do not feed or tease — Holding out food draws the whole troop. Do not grab, chase or corner a monkey.
If something is taken — Let it go rather than pulling it back; a monkey defending what it holds may bite.
If you are bitten or scratched — Get medical help the same day; in an emergency call 112.

Where you will meet them

Rhesus macaques are common all year wherever pilgrims carry food. In Braj, the places in the base are these; the city safety pages for Vrindavan and Mathura cover them too.

Vrindavan

The approach lanes and steps of Banke Bihari Mandir, where glasses are taken most often, especially in the queue; the wall and shrines along the Parikrama Marg; the steps of Keshi Ghat where food is offered to the river.

Mathura

The steps and rooftops of Vishram Ghat, the lanes and sweet shops on the way to Krishna Janmasthan, and the ashram at Raman Reti, Gokul.

Govardhan

Offerings are made all along the parikrama, and the troops move from shrine to shrine as the food arrives; also on the ghats and roofs of Mansi Ganga.

Elsewhere in the north

The Ganga footbridges in Rishikesh; the stairways to Mansa Devi and Chandi Devi in Haridwar; Galta Ji in Jaipur; the Durga Temple in Varanasi, long called the Monkey Temple.

Hanuman's kin, Mark Twain and the law

Across North India the macaque is treated as kin of Hanuman, the monkey devotee of Rama, and fed at his temples, which is why troops concentrate around them. Visiting Varanasi in 1897, Mark Twain noted that the sacred monkeys at the Durga temple "scramble around wherever they please".

It is also a famous laboratory animal: the Rh factor in human blood groups is named after it.

It is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN and has the widest natural range of any primate after humans. In India its legal status changed in 2022. It used to be in Schedule II; the 2022 amendment left it out of Schedules I and II, the lists of protected wild animals, so it now appears only in Schedule IV, with all primates, under CITES. In November 2025 a National Board for Wildlife committee recommended restoring Schedule II; that needs a government notification.

❓ FAQ

Are rhesus monkeys dangerous?

Usually not if you keep your distance, do not feed them and carry nothing in your hands. They bite when grabbed, cornered or fought over food; if bitten or scratched, get medical help the same day.

Is the rhesus macaque protected in India?

Not as a protected wild animal: since the 2022 amendment it is no longer in Schedule I or II of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, only in Schedule IV with all primates under CITES. A November 2025 recommendation to restore Schedule II needs a government notification. The IUCN lists it as Least Concern.

Sources (4)

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