Parrots cause havoc on farmlands in K'taka

Davanagere (Karnataka), Aug 25 (IANS) Hundreds of acres of Maize crop in Channagiri taluk of Davangere district of Karnataka have been laid waste after parrots invaded them.Usually, 30 to 40 or 40 to 50 parrots make up these flocks and are referred collectively as a 'pandemonium of parrots'.Local farmers explain that parrots are invading their agricultural lands in thousands to eat almost ready to reap Maize crop.D.L. Venkatsha, a local farmer has said that his Maize crop grown in 14 acres of land in Gollarahatti village of Channagiri taluk has been eaten up by the flock of parrots. He maintained that they did not face the problem earlier and do not know how to stop thousands of parrots from destroying crops."Corona has made our life miserable already. I was pinning hopes on this crop for livelihood that is being destroyed by parrots. I am clueless and life is going to be difficult," he explained.Channagiri Tehsildar Puttaraja Gowda has visited the spot and inspected the farm lands that have been targeted by Parrots and assured farmers of compensation from the government.Chandrappa Thimmaiah, an agro-scientist explained that, maize has sugar content and it is grown on a large scale in Davangere region. Parrots get attracted to it. These might be wild species of parrots migrated from other locations for reasons such as non availability of food.
--IANS mka/skp/