AGRA : Getting little support from the local administration to protect their crops from stray cattle farmers on the outskirts of the Taj city have decided to take the menace by its horns. Some 500 of them from villages in Barauli Ahir block, 20 km from the city, have pooled in Rs 1 crore to raise barbed fencing around their agriculture land.“Each of us contributed approximately Rs 20,000 and so far nearly 700 hectare of land has already been covered,” says Neeru Pradhan, village head of Kundaul, who led the drive. “Stray cattle have already destroyed nearly 30% rabi crops — wheat, potato and mustard,” he says. Farmers across UP are facing the menace of stray cattle, which destroy their standing crops. In many districts, they locked the rampaging animals on schools campuses in protest, but the problem continues.In Kundaul village, which is the centre of the fencing drive, around 1,200 families own approximately 840 hectare of fertile land. “Ever since this problem of stray cattle has cropped up because of a sudden rise in their population, we have to spend whole night in the cold to protect our crops from animals,” they say. Now, following the example of Kundaul farmers, other villages are also working on a similar plan.“To stop stray animals from entering our fields, tight barbed wires have been placed using wooden poles dug along the boundaries. e have spent around Rs 1 crore collected through contributions from around 500 farmers,” Pradhan says. According to villagers, fencing of one bigha land (0.25 hecatre) costs around Rs 4,000.“Stray animals have caused major damage to our crops. Officials took no action even after repeated complaints. So, like other farmers of the village, I, too, contributed Rs 20,000 for fencing. Government should get cow shelters developed in the villages in a time-bound manner,” said Dinesh Chand, a farmer in Kundaul.“Last year, majority of us suffered over around 30% crop loss due to stray cattle. Fencing was the only option for us to stem our losses. Some of the farmers made contribution for fencing despite their poor financial condition,” another farmer Mata Prasad said.In several villages of the district, farmers are using fireworks at night to keep stray animals away from their fields. High intensity torch lights and LEDs are also being used by others. UP government recently announced a policy to construct temporary cow shelters in all the villages. For this, proposals have been sought from all the districts.

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