Helpless against bovinenocturnal destroyers

PANAJI: Farmers in this village are unaware of a government scheme subsidizing the cost of erecting solar fencing even as stray cattle play havoc with their crops.
Non-availability of water has been discouraging farmers in Goa from cultivating the Rabi or 'Vaigonn' crop. But though the Selaulim irrigation project has thrown a lifeline to the farmers of Xeldem in Quepem taluka, the menace of stray cattle has almost killed agriculture in the village with fairly large patches of cultivable land, wedged between the urbanized areas of Curchorem and Quepem towns.
Water is abundantly available from Selaulim canal and its non-utilization seems criminal, but even diehard farmers like Olimpio Pereira are shying away from agriculture in this village of Xeldem, which has nine wards and a population of approximately 8,000 persons.
"I gave it up as I had to bear huge losses. Rampaging cattle destroyed my crops every year, but recently I fenced the field's boundary with barbed wire. And yet, the cattle damaged the crop in such a way that I had to leave a portion of my paddy field without harvesting," Pereira said.
The villagers' pleas to the panchayat failed to evoke any positive action. "The panchayat has a cattle pound and a poundkeeper, but stray cattle can be seen in the paddy fields or blocking the highway not far away from the panchayat office any time of the day," Pereira lamented.
A high court judgment in 2007 issued directions to the police to deploy their personnel on two-wheelers to keep the roads free of cattle, especially at night on highways. The stray cattle menace and other factors have hit farmers hard as they solely dependent on this activity. "My family was totally dependent on paddy fields for want of any alternative. Three generations of our family did it, but given it up during the last three years as we are helpless about the stray cattle menace," says Nicolau Barretto, another farmer from Kakumodd'ddi, Xeldem.
"The Tilamol junction on the state highway leading to Belgaum has turned into a death trap due to the menace of stray cattle. Several accidents have occurred here, seriously injuring many people," Barretto said. Villagers have raised doubts whether the panchayat impounded even a single cattle head.
Xeldem sarpanch Pramod Dessai conceded that the stray cattle menace has hit the farmers badly. "We have discussed the issue during several gram sabhas, but we have only one cattle poundkeeper during daytime. Hence, we are unable to curb the menace at night," he said. But he denied any knowledge about the record of cattle impounded during the last 13 years since the cattle pound was set up. Dessai agreed that not a single stray cattle has been impounded after he took over.
"I will send the proposal to the government to create one more post of poundkeeper so justice can be done at night time," Desai added. Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral expressed regret that the farmers were not availing a scheme of setting up barbed wire and solar wire fencing. "The government is offering 90% subsidy for the scheme," he said. But Pereira and other farmers claimed that they are not unaware of any such schemes nor the panchayat has popularized them. "We had even informed in writing on November 19, 2013, about the losses caused by stray cattle," he said.