Food stocks attacked by monkeys

In the midst of the drought, the only comforting factor is that India has 50 million tonnes of food stocks but when the food stocks are needed they may not actually be there, because the monkeys have taken their share.

Our storage of foodgrains is so poor that millions of tonnes get eaten by rats and insects and in this case by hungry monkeys.

Monkeys' day out, no, that's not some zoo but an FCI godown in the national capital Delhi. And they are eating wheat that's meant to be stored, stored properly for human beings, not monkeys.

Just take a look how foodgrains are so-called stored in government godowns. Bags stacked up in the open exposed to sun and rain.

The end result is rotten wheat, that looks totally black.

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns across the country can store 26.5 million tonnes of foodgrains.

But this year alone, the government has procured 53 million tones which means half that amount lies like this.

Recently, the government admitted 6 lakh tonnes of foodgrains were damaged due to storage problem.

Food that could have fed 1 crore people for a year. Almost half the country is reeling under drought but the government insists it has enough foodgrains to last 13 months.

But the big question is this how they are stored? The immediate beneficiaries... seem to be the monkeys...