Much like most of the remote corners of the country, people of Nangkor Gewog’s Dhakpai village in Zhemgang continue to spend sleepless nights, guarding their paddy against wild animals. Farmers say they are struggling to keep the animals at bay and have to battle against a relentless rampage by wild animals, day and night. This is despite the area being enclosed by solar fencing, which has long proven ineffective.
There are around 25 acres of paddy fields in Bhuktigang farmland in Dhakpai village, belonging to around 17 households.
It is 3 in the morning and farmers of Dhakpai are still in their paddy fields in a bid to guard the paddy against wild pigs.
The farmers say they stay in the fields till the crack of dawn. As the night goes on, some farmers make loud noises, while some go around the fields with torches to keep away the wild pigs.
To protect the crops, they have resorted to various measures, which have mostly been unsuccessful against the relentless attacks.
“We have to guard our crops day and night. Wild boars attack our crops at around 3 in the morning. We chase wild pigs by shouting and we use improvised bamboo clapping devices to chase them away but it is risky for us as the boars can be aggressive and attack us,” said Tashi Gayley, a farmer.
Today, the paddy-harvesting season is almost near and people have to keep their guards up.
Many farmers of Dakpai say while it is wild boars, which cause nuisance during the night, the farmers have to be wary of monkeys in the day.
“Wild pigs rampage our fields when they do not get anything to eat outside our fields. Wild pigs are nuisance and eat our crop but they destroy paddy fields altogether,” said Lhakpa Tshering, a farmer.
“We have to guard our crops from wild boars throughout the night and then we have to continue chasing monkeys during the day. We cannot leave our fields barren, as they are our prized possessions inherited from our ancestors. Moreover, the soil is fertile here and there is no irrigation water issue. That is why we cultivated rice here thinking we could grow for our own consumption against soaring rice price in the market,” said Ugyen Dorji, another farmer.
Dhakpai farmers have been doing this for the last two years, as the electric solar fence, which previously served as a deterrent, is now defunct.
Famers there said the electric current of the solar fences weakens occasionally and wild boars easily manage to enter their fields and ravage the crops.
According to the district agriculture office, solar-powered electric fencing is slowly being phased out as a measure to protect crops from wild animals with chain-link fencing given more emphasis.
Currently, there is a pilot chain-link fencing project each in Nangkor and Shingkhar Gewogs.
The office has plans to enclose over 1000 acres of fields across Zhemgang with more than 42 kilometres of chain-link fences.
This is expected to benefit more than 370 households in the district according to the district office.
Pema Samdrup, Zhemgang
Edited by Kipchu
