The biggest problem of Telangana farmers today, perhaps, is not MSP or the rising cost of fertilizers or availability of electricity and the like, though these woes continue to adversely affect the farming community. But ranking higher than all of these is the fresh challenge they face from marauding invaders of a different kind – armies of monkeys attacking village after village in search of food.
In their predatory and aggressive raids, the monkeys brook no resistance as they swoop in on standing crops and destroy fruit trees as they search for anything to eat.
The result is that these simians are regularly raiding villages, one by one, across Telangana resulting in extreme discomfort and heavy losses to the farmers.
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Besides, the monkeys are also turning out to be a menace in villages as they enter houses with impunity and steal and destroy everything they come across, hopping from one dwelling unit to another as villagers gather their wits as to how to tackle this “enemy”.
Shrinking habitat for simians
It’s a typical man-versus-animal habitat issue as both in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the monkey menace is at its peak, as the simians are not finding enough food for themselves in the forests as a large number of trees have been cleared and the monkeys are forced to leave forests and look elsewhere in search of food.
Even as the Telangana government has been speaking of this or that scheme to tackle the monkeys, for the present, the villagers and farmers are left to fend for themselves.
Along with other rising input costs, securing their crop from the monkeys –by deploying monkey catchers which is expensive and has now become a routine– is turning out to be the most crucial input cost in farming nowadays.
Said researcher and farmer Gandikota Edaiah who hails from Muta Konduru village of Yadadri Bhuvaneswari district, “Yes, monkeys are a menace and are the reason why farmers are unable to do their farming. And for sure, we have to spend more money to tackle this menace, as it is an additional cost to save the crops. Even after that, there is no guarantee our crops are secure and safe from the simians.”
“Why monkeys suddenly attack people in villages and one neighbour of mine had to spend Rs3 lakh on treatment. Besides, if a monkey bites, it could be dangerous. So far, there is no concerted action or a programme from the government, save for the odd plan or two to start cultivating food and fruit trees in forests so that the monkeys stay there only,” he said and held the deforestation and lands approaching Hyderebad turning into real estate plots as the two main reasons for this monkey menace now reaching villages and even towns.
Dog menace: Still being tackled
“The dog menace is still being tackled, but nothing major is being done for the monkey menace Sometimes monkeys are caught by specialist trained persons and let off in forests, but these simians return, again and again,” Eedaiah lamented.
It is not just his district that is under the monkey attack. Several districts like Medak, Sangareddy (adjacent to Hyderabad), Karimnagar, Siddipet, Adilabad, Mancherial are also reporting armies of monkeys swarming all over the agricultural fields and damaging crops and also entering huts and houses of people in villages.
Often, any raid by monkeys leaves behind a trail of damage, Eedaiah said, while explaining the depth of the menace.
So, in the country’s model state it is not the government nor the private sector that is deciding the cropping pattern, nor the markets.
“Rather, it’s monkeys that are responsible for shift to cash crops like cotton and groundnut in many villages,” rued Eedaiah.
Image by Pavan Prasad from Pixabay
