And just when they thought they will have a bountiful harvest, they lose it to wild animals yet again. Every year, farmers across the country find themselves trapped in this vicious cycle of hardship. Farmers in Phuensumgang of Gosarling Gewog in Tsirang have had electric fencing since 2016, but they continue to lose the fight against wild animal attacks.
Recently, a farmer lost about an acre of paddy from his four and a half acres to wild boars. He said the wild boars managed to get in his paddy field despite having electric fencing.
“From seven households, six of us have electric fencing but one of our neighbours have barbed wire fencing. The wild boars could have come from his field since my paddy fields are adjacent to his. The existing electric fencing is strong enough to protect our crops from the wild animals,” said Tashi Phuentsho, a farmer in Phuensumgang.
It took days for Tashi and his neighbours to chase the wild boars from their fields. However, it is of little solace since their fields are surrounded by a thick jungle.
“Only after a week of damaging paddy, we could chase away the wild boars out of electric fencing. It is not much of a problem for us when they eat only grains. But when they uproot and trample the paddy, all grains fall on the ground leaving nothing to harvest,” he added.
“We forgo sleep every night to guard paddy against wild boars. However, we lose to them now and then. We depend mainly on paddy for our livelihoods,” said another farmer.
Their trouble doesn’t end here. Following the sleepless night, farmers have to spend their day guarding the crop against other wild animals like monkeys and deer. This has become a daily routine for 83-year old Kharka Bdr. Khati for some years now.
“Monkeys remove all grains leaving nothing to harvest,” he said.
“Farming is a difficult task since we have to guard our crops against wild boars in the night and from monkeys during the day. We have electric fencing but still, monkeys get to the paddy fields jumping from trees,” said another farmer.
While this paddy season is almost over as they start harvesting paddy in the second week of next month, they are hopeful that the government will come up with a better remedy to solve the long-standing human-wildlife conflict.
Pema Tshewang, Tsirang
Edited by Sonam
