Dharmapuri ryots use recorded voices to shoo away birds

DHARMAPURI:  Troubled by birds feeding on paddy and millet crops, Dharmapuri farmers have started installing music speakers and hanging plastic bags in fields to ward them off. Farmers claim birds destroy over 30% of crops every harvest season.

As many farmers feel scarecrows, a traditional method to keep birds away, are not enough, they are setting up speakers that blare out pre-recorded human voices and plastic bags from one end of the field to the other. Farmers who have adopted this method said it is very effective.

K Thangaraj, a farmer from Adhiyamankottai said, “Many farmers are cultivating for their personal use too and no pesticides or insecticides are used in farms. Due to this, there is an increase in the insect movement in farms which attracts birds. Though birds are effective in controlling insects, they will feed the grains we grow. This accounts for over 30% of the losses sustained by us.”

Another farmer, T Kumari from Nallampalli said, “If the field is left unattended, birds will consume a lot of the produce. So we set up speakers. Usually, we record some audio of shouting on our phones and put it on repeat. We also use polythene covers across the fields so that birds do not perch on the wires running across the fields.”

Kumari added, during dawn and dusk they switch off the speakers as during this time there will be more insect movement and birds can prey on them. R Gopal aka Gopi, from Adhiyamankotta, added, “The speaker’s sound makes it feel like people are in the field and keep away birds. Many farmers in our area have adopted such methods.” Sometimes we also make a fence out of saris to keep away boars. Some animals are startled by this and leave the fields,” he said.