Rabindranath Biswas
Diglipur, Nov. 28: Stray cattle destroying vegetable plants in various villages are increasingly turning into an unmanageable nightmare for farmers in Diglipur.
The stray cattle menace has spilled over from cities to villages, grazing down farmers’ hopes of a good harvest year after year. While farmers in Diglipur rural areas mostly face the onslaught of non-availability of fertilizers for the last couple of years, the stray cattle especially the bulls have become a real headache for them who are waging a war against the stray bovines.
As per report, in Madhupur village area, herds of feral cows and bulls come out of nowhere at night and invade the farms in a big way. Large groups of these animals completely ravage the fields they enter in, leaving no scope of defence for the land owner, lamented a farmer.
They destroy standing vegetable plants like ladies finger, chillies, radish etc and also prey on vegetables. They wipe out the entire plot of vegetable plants in one stroke and then return to their hideouts,” said Diglipur Farmers’ Union president Mr. Kamal Halder.
“It is such a headache that our entire yield is in grave peril. We have to keep round-the-clock vigil and keep ourselves armed with lathis to chase away the stray bovines,” said Mr. Sudhangshu Das of Madhupur village, whose vegetable plants like ladies finger standing over one bigha of land, radish & leafy vegetables in another patch of land have been recently ravaged completely by the stray cattle.
“The damage by stray cattle has broken me economically; I bought seeds of ladies finger @ Rs. 9000/- per kg and sowed over one bigha of land and the entire ladies finger plants which just started flowering have been completely cropped by the stray cattle,” the disheartened Sudhangshu Das further rued.
Raising fencing is not feasible for the farmers due to high costs and other constraints. The government provides no practical solution to save the farmers from this menace”, rued Mr. Kamal Halder. Another eye opening fact is that the farmers community who rear cows for milk keep the heifers with them and irresponsibly abandon their bull calves who later helplessly become stray cattle, alleged the Diglipur Farmers’ Union, President. If someone is earning money by selling milk of a cow, then he should be equally responsible for the bull calf as well, and he shouldn’t desert the bull calf to become a feral, Mr. Kamal Halder warned.
“After toiling in the fields throughout the day, how it is possible to remain awake in the night to guard our crops and vegetables,” Mr. Sudhangshu Das asked. “Farming is already a losing proportion in the present times for various reasons. The onslaught of stray cattle has dealt a further blow to the farmers”, he further added.
“The problem is bound to aggravate as more cows/bulls that reach the non-productive age will be let loose on the roads or in the fields”, Mr. Kamal Halder further warned.
Ideally, stray cattle should be taken to cow shelters, but cowsheds in Diglipur are non-functional, according to farmers.
However, Diglipur Farmers’ Union president Mr. Kamal Halder threatened that, if the Administration doesn’t take appropriate steps to resolve the problem within a period of 20 days, the farmers of Diglipur will resort to hold dharna.
