Ram Niwas, a farmer in his late 30s from Lakhimpur Kheri district in Uttar Pradesh, dons a bear costume to protect his crops. He finds this to be the best solution to scare away stray cattle and monkeys from his discipline, a burning subject within the state as a consequence of which farmers are resorting to probably the most peculiar options. The stray animal menace has left a extreme dent on their earnings.
“In Lakhimpur Kheri, most of the farmers are engaged in cane, groundnut, green vegetable farming that largely attracts stray cattle and other animals; it is a big nuisance around here. There are several instances of stray animals spoiling large tracts of crops, which left a severe dent on our income,” mentioned Ram Niwas, who’s from Dhakora village.
Got the thought from avenue play
It was then that Ram Niwas determined to go for a novel solution to scare away the animals. “I tried scarecrows, fencing, air guns but nothing worked. So, a few weeks ago I saw a street play at a neighbouring town where I spotted a person in a bear costume and decided to try this method at least once,” he mentioned.
Ram Niwas purchased the costume of a bear for Rs 700 and tried it out. “I put it on and went to the field and, to my surprise, it worked and I managed to scare away the stray animals by making some movements and growling sounds,” he mentioned.
It’s been greater than two weeks since Ram Niwas used this methodology and, noting his success, some others within the village approached him and supplied him Rs 150 to Rs 250 per day to rent him to protect their fields.
“Some farmers offered me a decent amount to guard their fields. I accepted the offer and now I am guarding their fields along with mine during the daytime,” he added.
Other than Dhakora village in Lakhimpur Kheri, farmers from neighbouring districts have additionally caught on to the thought and are opting for the same solution to guard their fields and to maintain their crops secure. Hairamkhera, Rahajaniya, Fariya, Pipariya, Chapartala and Baikuaaa are another villages, the place a lot of farmers have adopted this follow.
When Kismat was employed to scare away monkeys
A bear costume will not be the one solution to scare away stray animals. Once upon a time, the Northern Railway (NR) zone had employed a person, who would scare away monkeys by producing the sound of a langur.
Kismat was employed by the railways to fight the monkey menace at Lucknow’s Charbagh railway station in 2019. Even the Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC) and different authorities departments employed him to scare away monkeys.
Kismat adopted this as a occupation in 2013, when he was compelled to let go of his pet langur after the surroundings ministry reinstated a ban on retaining capped langurs as they’re a protected species.
“I used to scare away monkeys with the help of my langur. After the ban, we had no other means of income and, hence, I started imitating a langur’s sound to scare away monkeys,” he mentioned.
Rs 63 crore allotted to deal with stray cattle menace
Not solely in rural pockets of the state, stray cattle have turn into a menace even in city areas. The state authorities has taken measures to fight the menace however that is but to point out outcomes.
In February, the federal government allotted 52 hectares of land at Purkazi in Muzaffarnagar district whereas the division of animal husbandry and dairying sanctioned Rs 63 crore for a cow sanctuary. This will likely be run by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) for which development is to start out subsequent month and anticipated to be accomplished in 4 months. This mission, as soon as operational, will likely be replicated in all districts.
Rising numbers
The variety of stray cattle in Uttar Pradesh has gone up from 10,09,436 in 2012 to 11,84,494 in 2019, as per knowledge from the ministry of fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying.
A district-wise evaluation reveals that Chitrakoot recorded the best variety of stray cattle at 68,813, adopted by Mahboba at 61,765, Gonda at 52,615, Hardoi at 48,173 and Banda at 47, 658. Information is accessible for all 75 districts within the state and the numbers are labored out based mostly on the federal government’s livestock census.
National livestock numbers are collected each 5 years. The final livestock census was performed in 2019 and the following one is due in 2024.
Source: www.news18.com
