Namita Das has two grown up children, but she continues to suckle her pet monkey.

Mrs Das describes Buru as her “son” (Pics: Bapi Roy Chowdhury)

Namita, a middle-aged woman who lives in India’s north-eastern Tripura state and is a government worker, describes Buru, the pet monkey, as her third child. “Yes, I breastfeed him. He is my son,” says Namita, caressing the monkey.

More than four years ago, her woodcutter husband found a dying baby monkey under a tree after a fierce storm. He brought the animal home in Chandrapur village on the outskirts of the Udaipur town in Tripura’s South District. “The monkey fell ill after the storm , in which it lost its parents. I decided to bring him up with my daughters,” says Namita.

Her daughters, Dipti and Tripiti, treat the monkey as a sibling. “We tie rakhi (a sacred thread) on Buru’s wrists during the Indian festival when sisters wish their brothers well,” says Dipti, the elder of the two. “I did not have a son. God finally gave one,” says Namita.

By Sun Tzu on 11-11-2006