Why four men are being paid to mimic langurs at the Badminton World Championships in New Delhi

Four trained monkey mimics have been brought in around the venue ahead of the BWF World Championships, which begin in New Delhi on August 17. Their job is to reproduce the calls of langurs and discourage rhesus macaques from entering the stadium.

It is an unusual solution, but it is also a direct response to a problem that became visible during the India Open in January, when a monkey was spotted among spectators at the same complex. The tournament also saw a match between HS Prannoy and Loh Kean Yew interrupted twice after bird droppings fell on the court.

What has happened since is considerably bigger than hiring four people to chase monkeys.

The Badminton Association of India (BAI), the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the Sports Ministry have spent the intervening months working through a list of problems at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium complex, where the World Championships return to India for the first time since 2009. The tournament will conclude on August 23.

The result is a venue-readiness exercise that covers the less glamorous parts of hosting elite sport: keeping animals out, stopping birds from nesting, preventing water from entering the building, upgrading lighting, improving toilets and making sure athletes encounter a controlled environment once they enter the competition zone. The monkey mimic is simply the most visible part of it.

A January warning became an August checklist

The India Open provided an unusually public stress test for the venue in January. During Prannoy’s match against Singapore’s Loh, play was stopped twice after bird droppings fell from the stadium ceiling. Around the same tournament, a monkey was seen in the spectator area.

The training venue in the same complex also came under criticism, while players raised concerns about air quality and hygiene. The Badminton World Federation subsequently acknowledged issues relating to “general cleanliness, hygiene and animal control”, while continuing to back the venue for the World Championships.

The significance of those incidents was not just that they interrupted a badminton tournament. They exposed how an indoor arena can have problems that have little to do with the playing surface itself.

A badminton court can be tournament-ready while the building around it is not which is what has shaped the preparation for August.

The first line of defence is now the door

One of the simplest changes has been to reduce the number of ways animals can enter. The stadium’s earlier single-door arrangements have been replaced at key access points with a double-door system. Vents and other possible entry points for pigeons have also been sealed.

The logic is that instead of trying to remove animals after they enter the venue, organisers are attempting to prevent them from getting inside in the first place. That has also meant examining parts of the building that normally receive little attention during a sporting event.

Broken or open sections around exhaust systems, pylons and other access points were identified as potential routes for pigeons. The organisers have worked on closing those gaps and reducing places where birds can roost or nest.

The pigeon problem has gone high-tech

The second layer of the response is less visible. A non-toxic gel is being used around areas where pigeons could otherwise settle and nest. Officials have said the technology is already used elsewhere, including by the railways, to keep birds away from sensitive infrastructure.

Organisers have also installed portable machines designed to emit sounds associated with predatory birds. The machines are intended to discourage pigeons from approaching the venue rather than physically removing them once they arrive.

The approach is important because the objective is not simply to get through seven days of the World Championships. Some of the changes are being presented as longer-term solutions for the stadium.

That matters for a venue expected to continue hosting international competitions after the World Championships.

Then there are the monkey mimics

The most distinctly Delhi solution is human rather than technological.

The use of live langurs to keep rhesus macaques away was banned under wildlife regulations, creating a niche profession for people who imitate langur calls instead. The practice has also been documented in Delhi’s government buildings and became the subject of the 2019 Hindi film Eeb Allay Ooo!

One of the workers brought into the World Championships preparation, identified in a Reuters report as Zafar, said the skill had been passed down through his family. Zafar said the team is hired through a tender at a monthly payment of Rs 25,000, but the work is not available on a regular basis.

That figure is useful because it puts a human scale on what otherwise sounds like an unusual venue-management measure. It is also a reminder that preparations for global sporting events often create work far removed from the athletes and competition itself. The arrangement exists because the organisers are trying prevent a repeat of January’s monkey intrusion.

The more expensive problems are above the court

The bigger operational changes are more important for the athletes. Lighting has been upgraded, with organisers targeting an even distribution across the courts and seeking to prevent shadows from affecting play. Roof leakages have also been repaired and tested, an especially relevant exercise with the championships taking place during Delhi’s monsoon period.

The venue has also undergone work on toilets and athlete facilities. A March 2026 SAI tender, for example, covered renovation and upgrading of toilets at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium campus. The scale of the intervention will not be confined to what television cameras will show.

For athletes, the details are often more consequential than the appearance of the arena: changing rooms, toilets, temperature, lighting, water ingress, access routes and the condition of practice courts.

Why January mattered

There is a reason the January India Open remains central to the preparations. The event was not a small tournament. It is one of the biggest regular badminton events held in India and attracts the world’s leading players.

The problems became part of the international conversation around India’s ability to host major badminton events. The BWF acknowledged concerns about cleanliness, hygiene and animal control, although it continued to support the Delhi venue for the World Championships.

That makes the August tournament more than another event on the calendar. It is a test of India’s ability to host big sporting events ahead of the Commonwealth Games in 2030 and their ambitious bid to host the Olympics in 2036. This time, the organisers have had months to respond.

The business of getting the venue right

There is also a commercial dimension to the exercise. The World Championships are returning to India after 17 years and will bring the sport’s leading players to Delhi for its biggest annual competition. Tickets were put on sale in June, with reported prices ranging from ₹499 to ₹5,500 and around 6,000 seats made available to the public.

For spectators, the experience starts before the first rally: entering the arena, finding a seat, using facilities and watching a match without interruptions. For international players and officials, the standard is even higher because the venue becomes part of their assessment of the host city.

The January experience showed how quickly something as mundane as a bird entering an indoor arena can become an international sports story. The August preparations are an attempt to ensure that the story this time remains about badminton.

And so, alongside the new lighting, repaired roof, upgraded facilities and sealed entry points, Delhi has added four men whose job is to make a langur’s call. It may be the strangest line item in the World Championships preparation but the organisers do not want to leave any stones unturned.