UP: Farmers hire men at Rs 250 per day to dress up as bears to scare away stray cattle & monkeys

BAREILLY: In a bid to protect their standing crops from marauding animals, especially monkeys, farmers in some villages in Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh have picked up an old trick and started dressing up as bears and roam around in their fields to scare away the 'invaders'.
Farmers are also hiring men at Rs 250 per day for the act. For instance, Sanjeev Mishra of Bajrang Garh village has bought a “bear dress” for Rs 5,000 from Shahjahanpur.
Mishra said, “Marauding monkeys or stray cattle on the fields can render months of labour useless. This tactic is working well and is becoming popular in the region, However, wearing the bear dress, made of rexine, is not easy, and it is difficult to walk or run around in the fields in hot and humid conditions.”
One of the workers, Rajesh Kumar, 26, said, “I wear this disguise daily, and I take five rounds of the fields and then spend the rest of the time sitting under a tree. My wife at times joins me during my nine-hour duty. Since my entire body is covered, I can even charge at the animals without any fear of getting injured by them.”
Lovelesh Singh, a farmer of Dhadhaura village, said, “This method works well during the day, but we are still finding ways to keep stray cattle away at night.”
Farmers of Fariya Piparia and Dhadhaura villages in Mitauli block of Kheri district have also resorted to this innovative technique and brought the outfit from Bareilly. Vinay Singh of Fariya Piparia said, “We had approached the forest department several times regarding monkey menace, but the officials expressed their inability to deal with the issue citing lack of funds. Now, we have taken the matter in our own hands and come up with a cheap alternative to deal with the growing monkey menace. We have prepared a roster and every farmer takes turns to wear the bear attire and roam about the fields.”
Kheri divisional forest officer Sanjay Biswal said, “We are aware that farmers have come up with a unique idea to keep monkeys at bay. At present, our department is unable to carry out operations to trap the animals due to paucity of funds.” About three years ago in Shahjahanpur district, people of Sikandarpur village in Jalalabad had bought bear costumes and deployed men in the field wearing the attire throughout the day to ward off stray cattle.