Delhi is home to more than just Delhiites. You’ll be sharing the city with some freeloading residents who pay neither rent nor taxes.
Monkeys — aggressive, organised, and surprisingly strategic. Central and South Delhi are hotspots. Do not eat food openly near them. They will snatch phones, sunglasses, water bottles — anything shiny or edible. If a monkey approaches you, avoid eye contact, don’t smile (they interpret bared teeth as aggression), and back away slowly. If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to be mugged by a five-kilogram primate, Delhi has you covered.
Stray dogs — Delhi has an estimated 800,000 of them. During the day, they’re mostly lazy and harmless, even friendly — you’ll find them sleeping under cars, in parks, and occasionally in the middle of a busy road, with traffic flowing around them the way a river flows around a boulder. At night, they form packs and get territorial. Don’t approach, don’t provoke, and don’t run. Walk calmly and give them space. If a dog is barking at you, it’s usually defending its patch — keep moving and you’ll be out of its jurisdiction in thirty seconds.
Cows — it wouldn’t be India without them. They are on the road. Sometimes in the middle of it. Traffic goes around them. You should too. Cows are sacred in Hinduism — seen as parallels to a mother, the source of milk and nourishment — so treat them with respect regardless of how absurd the visual might seem. They’re almost always docile, but don’t get between a cow and her calf. That rule applies across most of the animal kingdom, and cows are no exception.
