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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Fighting adversity, innovatively! -KM Dayashankar

-The Hindu

KARIMNAGAR (Telengana): Fighting adversities is part of human survival and villagers of the interior Veernapalli and other villages in Yellareddypet mandal have been doing that for quite some time. Saving their standing crops from wild animals has become their top priority what with the decreased area of cultivation due to water shortage.

They cannot afford technological support, but that has not deterred them from devising their own plan to keep wild animals away from the fields. A visit to the area and one can notice numerous plastic bags left tied to poles stuck in the ground, giving a vague impression of the presence of humans. That apart, they use iron sheets to keep animals and birds away by beating it repeatedly with a stick.

The farmers have no other go as they have cultivated very few acres this year following depletion of groundwater. The crops they have grown are for their own consumption and therefore cannot afford to lose it to birds and animals. In the recent past, wild animals damaging the crops has become a big menace in this area. Some the farmers have taken to patrolling their fields at night to protect the crops.

Chandravathi, who has cultivated paddy and maize in her five guntas of land, said having plastic bags hanging in the field has come in handy for her. "It scares animals away and keeps my crop safe," she added.

Farmers in Veernapalli and other villages leave plastic bags hanging in their fields to scare birds and animals away

The Hindu, 23 February, 2015, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/telangana/fighting-a
dversity-innovatively/article6923906.ece