Paranormal record / 2001
Spring 2001. East Delhi was sweltering. The power kept failing, and many families slept on their roofs. Then the reports began. Something was leaping from roof to roof in the dark. Witnesses described a black, shadowy thing, part monkey and part man, with shining red eyes. It scratched. It bit. "It makes a shrill whistle as it leaps," said one resident. Within weeks, hundreds had called the police. About 60 people reported injuries. Two or three died fleeing in panic, and mobs turned on innocent strangers. Up to 3,000 officers patrolled the streets. They called it the Kala Bandar. The Monkey-man of Delhi.
A heat wave pushed temperatures above 110 °F on the eastern edges of Delhi. Rolling blackouts came and went. In poor districts along the border with Uttar Pradesh, many families slept on their roofs. The first report came from Ghaziabad, dated to 5 April 2001, although Reuters placed the first attack there in early May. By around 12 May the thing had reached Delhi, and by 16 May it was being reported in Noida and New Delhi.