Though there has been no assessment of the cumulative extent of damage to crops by depredatory birds in former composite Adilabad district, for one, agriculture scientists are alarmed over the phenomenon which has assumed dangerous proportions. As many an experiment in finding a permanent solution to the problem has failed, experience of individual farmers at local level only has saved the day so far.
The problem is related with shrinking of forests and drastically decreased availability of food for birds. Thanks to extensive deforestation, seasonal fruits and other edible forms of forest produce is almost completely lost which is why the birds are forced to depend upon agriculture fields adjoining whatever is left of the jungles.
An example of this is the Adilabad Agriculture Research Station (ARS) itself which is the only cropped area in the vicinity and attracts large number of birds. Bird depredation is quite high here and the organisation incurs extra expenditure to engage labour for scaring birds away for a few days in the initial sowing stages and the harvesting time. "The crops in fields along the road side are more affected and the economic loss to farmers is quite significant," stated ARS Principal Scientist Sreedhar Chauhan from observations made over a period of time. "Sowing excess seed to take care of the food needs of the birds was an old method of dealing with the problem," he pointed out indicating it could be a possible solution for humans as well as birds.
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"Forage crops, which had farmers sowing some extra quantity of seed so that granivorous birds like parakeets and pigeons fed on it without impacting upon the yields expected by farmers, are out of vogue," pointed out Adivasi farmer Pandram Jaithu of Raiguda in Sirikonda mandal of Adilabad district. "I am using these plastic bags, the thin material of which creates strange sounds as the breeze flows," he added driving home the point that local solutions are effective.
The farmer says the method is economical too as he spent only about ₹40 for purchasing 400 plastic bags for his one acre jowar field. Among other methods in controlling bird depredation is use of fisherman's net around the perimetre of the fields but this results in the avians getting entangled and killed.
Though the birds relish kharif crops like cotton and soyabean seed and bolls in tender stage, the problem seems less intensive as the area under these crops is as extensive as 4.5 lakh hectare in old Adilabad. It is in rabi, when food crops, mostly jowar and maize are grown in about 1 lakh hectare that the problem look compounded many times over.
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