The town representative of Gyalpoizhing in Monggar, Gembo, is being accused of spreading Giant African Land Snails to Lingmithang and Threthangbi. After the outbreaks of snails in Gyalpoizhing this summer, people from nearby places, said that the town representative is not doing enough to control snail population in his town.
“I am being accused unnecessarily. I am not responsible. The population is growing on its own and spreading,” said Gembo.
The Giant African Land Snail first appeared in Gyalpoizhing under Monggar Dzongkhag in 2006. Since then, it has gradually increased in numbers. Half of what people grow in the town are lost to these snails, which are listed among 100 most invasive species in the world.
The invasive creature increased drastically in numbers in 2008. The people of Gyalpoizhing are trying to save their fields and gardens by collecting the snails and dumping it in pits. “They eat everything. We have no option but to dump them in pits,” said Thinley Dorji, a resident.
The Monggar administration tried to export the snails to other countries but later found out that the snails are inedible.
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Gembo says if the collect all the snails in the town, it may come up to over 200 truckloads.
Meanwhile, people are expecting the government to come to their rescue. “We will starve otherwise,” said one of the residents.
The Department of Agriculture is urging people to refrain from transporting snails to other parts of the country. They say it can adapt to wide range of climatic conditions.
The Chief Agriculture Officer, Chimmi Rinzin, said people collecting the shells of the snails for religious purpose has come to their notice.
“The snails’ shells have both clock and anti-clock wise pattern and in our religion certain pattern is considered to have religiously significant.” He said what farmers need to realise is that it is not advisable to collect the shells and take it to other areas as the Giant African Land Snails are said to multiply fast.
He added, apart from the negative impact on environment impact, it also possesses risk to human health, if the population is not controlled.
“The only option is to manually collect and destroyed it and this has to continue for several years till the outbreak is controlled.”
Besides physical removal, the department of agriculture will focus on strengthening surveillance and also organise national level sensitization workshop.
