Are there really 50 million monkeys in India?

The figure “50 million monkeys in India” is often repeated, but I could not find a reliable nationwide census confirming it. The number appears in some publications without a transparent methodology. For comparison, an official 2019 survey in Himachal Pradesh estimated about 136,000 rhesus macaques in that one state—not all of India and not every monkey species. The 50-million figure should therefore be treated as unverified, not as a precise fact.