Coimbatore: Finally, there seems to be a cheap and effective option to scare away animals that raid your crop - a city-based farmer says he has come up with a safe, organic, cheap and easy to make gun that can successfully chase away animals. The gun, which uses only paper balls as bullets, is harmless but supposed to make louder noise to scare animals away. They hardly cost Rs 500 to make.P Nagaraj, who practices organic farming at Athipalayam, had been fighting a losing battle with peacocks for years. “Every time I sow seeds, peacocks would come and eat them up as they grow a feet long. Since getting any form of a gun is so complicated in Tamil Nadu, I kept searching for inexpensive ways to scare away birds as crackers are expensive. I also read about zon guns acquired by the airport.”During his extensive search for homemade air guns on YouTube, a simple PVC pipe gun grabbed his attention. “The gun was easy to make and seemed to make a loud noise,” Nagaraj said, adding, “This requires a 2.5-inch diameter PVC pipe of 1ft long. Close one side with a dummy and reduce the other side’s opening to 1.5 inches. Then make a small hole in the middle of the dummy, insert a gas lighter into it and stick it with m-seal. On the other side, insert another PVC pipe, which has a 1.5-inch opening, through the 1.5-inch opening. Inside the 1.5-inch wide pipe, make paper balls using old newspaper, stuff it into one side and close it tightly.”Whenever the gun needs to be used, buy any body spray and spray a bit of it into the 1.5-inch opening and immediately insert the 1.5-inch pipe into it. “To fire a shot, press the gas lighter. The resulting spark along with the alcohol in the body spray creates a force which will push the newspaper balls out with a loud noise,” he says.Nagaraj, who has been using this gun for seven months, says it is cheaper and less polluting than crackers. “It will cost one just Rs 500 and the paper balls that falls in soil will get composted, unlike pieces of plastic that can be used instead, or chemicals. A farmer has to burst at least 10 crackers a day, compared to which this is much cheaper.”

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