This story is from February 22, 2020

Pig terror keeps farmers at Chhota Udepur awake at night

Pig terror keeps farmers at Chhota Udepur awake at night
Vadodara: Seeing villagers take turns to keep vigil at night is a common sight across the state. While in most cases, this nocturnal vigilance has a specific target — thieves and robbers. But what keeps Chhota Udepur farmers awake at night is a four-legged menace — pigs!
Armed with wooden sticks, farmers in two villages of Chhota Udepur — Pochamba and Vantda of Naswadi taluka — are spending sleepless nights, guarding their precious crops from the nightly attacks.

The farmers take turns to keep vigil at night to protect their crops, be it maize or wheat, cotton and groundnut. Pigs have destroyed every standing crop that the farmers have sowed. As the farmers have little or no money to fence their farms, at least 25 men keep a watch to protect their farms from sounder of pigs every single night.
“Earlier we had to keep a watch during the day but now even at night. If we are lax, our entire crop will be ruined,” said Ashwin Bhil. He added that after the farmers sow the seeds, the pigs dig up and remove them. “If it is ready for harvest they will partially eat the maize and ruin the entire crop. The crop becomes completely useless as even the cattle do not eat it then,” said Bhil, who owns a 3 acre farm.
Another farmer Surendra Desai, who owns 14 acres, has hired seven farm labourers to keep watch. “The harassment of pigs is terrible. “Even the cotton crop is not safe. If we doze off for only two hours at night, we are sure to face huge loss the next morning,” rued 72-year-old Desai. Farmers tried all tricks under their sleeves to hoodwink the pigs, like tying sarees around their crops. If the six yards failed to rein in on the pig terror.

Last year, Desai had gathered documents from all the farmers to prepare for putting up fences around the farms under government scheme. Desai had submitted all documents to the local office of Gujarat State Land Development Corporation Ltd too. However, the file is gathering dust till date.Bhil and Desai’s son Mitesh said that maize is an important crop for tribal farmers of Chhota Udepur as they grow it for their personal consumption and sell only the access crop.
“Market price of maize is around Rs590 per quintal which we cannot afford. We, therefore, grow our own crop. But when the pigs destroy the crops, we have to shell out money to buy food from the market,” Bhil said.
Tribal families eat flat bread or ‘rotlo’ made of maize flour — a staple diet in every household.
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA