Rural Mandya deals with mess in aftermath of revelry at open spaces

Mandya: Rural Mandya is facing a new environmental challenge with several pockets in the district becoming dumping yards for empty liquor bottles and plastic sachets.
With changing lifestyle and decreasing social fear of alcohol consumption in rural areas, tipplers, especially youth, are preferring open fields or under the shadow of trees to consume alcohol. This has led to nuisance — agriculture fields, tank bund and waterbodies, including canals, are being littered with broken bottles and sachets.
Farmers, who have their fields near roads and waterbodies, are bearing the brunt of the drunkards’ menace. “I’m tired of alcoholics who party in my field. These senseless youngsters are spoiling the sanctity of agriculture fields for a high. At times, the broken bottles strewn around the field have harmed me, my family members and our livestock,” said Shankar, a farmer in Konasale village.
Shankar shared his ordeal of getting his bullock treated after a broken glass piece pierced its hoof two months ago. “I spent several thousands on its treatment, but my bullock still to recover,” he said, adding that he and fellow farmers had beaten a group of youths who were partying in his field. “We tried to lodge a police complaint. But police did not to file a complaint, saying they don’t know under which legal provision they could book the alcoholic youths,” Shankar claimed.
Besides making agriculture field dumping yards, these alcoholics are spoiling the waterbodies, including canals, with trash. “Plastics and broken glasses are killing aquatic creatures. Uncontrolled partying in public places, and the utter disregard of youths towards environment are posing danger to society in many ways. This kind of socio-environmental problem is new, and we don’t have any legal recourse to prevent this,” said a senior environment officer.