Student Reporter

Design courtesy: Siddhita Sonavane

Editor

large_01-20240526_122048-AD-Ambegaons_farmers_fear_marauding_bisons.jpg

medium_01-20240526_122048-AD-Ambegaons_farmers_fear_marauding_bisons.jpg

small_01-20240526_122048-AD-Ambegaons_farmers_fear_marauding_bisons.jpg

thumbnail_01-20240526_122048-AD-Ambegaons_farmers_fear_marauding_bisons.jpg

01-20240526_122048-AD-Ambegaons_farmers_fear_marauding_bisons.jpg

It was a foggy morning in July 2021 when farmer Shivram Gawari arrived at his fields bordering the Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary and found over five guntha (about 0.125 acres) of his paddy crop half-eaten. The rest had been crushed to the ground.“I had never seen anything like it before,” he says, the shock still fresh in his mind. He followed the footprints of animals which led him into the forest, and the gava (Bos gaurus and sometimes called the Indian bison) suddenly appeared. The largest of the bovines, they present a forbidding picture – males are well over six feet tall and weigh anywhere between 500 and 1,000 kilograms. When a herd of heavy weight bison trample fields, they create huge craters which completely annihilate both crops and saplings. “Gava have destroyed my crop every season for three years now. Abandoning cultivation is my only option,” says Shivram. He is seated in front of his tin-roofed home in Don where a herd of gava has been camping since 2021.

The village is one of many settlements surrounding the Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary in Maharashtra. The sanctuary is populated by deer, boar, sambar, leopard, and the rare tiger. Now in his sixties, Shivram has lived all his life in Ambegaon. He says crop losses caused by wild animals straying out of the forest have never been so devastating. “The animals should be captured and taken away,” he says.Worried about losing his crops to them for the third year in a row, he stopped cultivating his fields over a year ago. Many other farmers have also let their land lie fallow, and have switched to collecting and selling firewood and hirda, a fruit used in ayurvedic medicines, as their primary source of income. A 2023 union government <a href="https://forest.uk.gov.in/uploads/downloads_details/1690360242.pdf">report</a>, Guidelines for Human-Gaur Conflict Mitigation, attributes the foraging of crops by these animals to loss of food and habitat due to diminishing forests and climate change.

In 2021, the herd near Don village was small – just three to four animals. In 2024, their number has doubled and so have their invasions. Empty farms send them wandering into villages, creating an atmosphere of fear among locals.Most farmers in the village cultivate only for sustenance. They farm on plain patches of land, no more than a few acres, available at the foothills. A few farmers have dug their own wells; and only a handful own borewells as agriculture here is rainfed. The bison attacks have injured their annual harvest and food security. Budda Gawari cultivates three gunthas of land adjacent to his house. Like others in the village he grows local varieties of rice like raibhog in monsoon and lentils masoor and harbara in winter. “I was going to plant newly cultivated saplings on my farm. They [gava] destroyed these saplings and my entire harvest was gone. I lost the main crop my family eats. Without rice, it will be difficult for us this whole year,” says the 54-year-old farmer.

Budda belongs to the Koli Mahadev community, listed as Scheduled Tribe in the state. “I don&#39;t sell any of my produce. I don’t cultivate enough to sell,” he says. He estimates the annual value of his crop at Rs. 30,000 - 40,000. Input costs are around Rs. 10,000 to 15,000. What is left is not enough to feed his family of five for an entire year. The paddy he lost would have ensured the family’s food security.Both Shivram and Budda contacted the forest department after suffering crop losses and recorded panchnama (investigation report). After more than six months, Shivram received Rs. 5,000 and Budda Rs. 3,000 as compensation – less than 10 per cent of their losses. “I spent at least 1,000 - 1,500 rupees going from one government office to another to get compensated for my loss,” says Budda. Sitaram Gawari, the upa sarpanch, mentioned that the rules laid down by the Ministry of Agriculture are not being followed. Balkrushna Gawari, Budda’s son, says, “as an additional source of income MNREGA would have been extremely beneficial to us. We could have built water storage such as wells.” Less MNREGA work (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee) has pushed the farmers of Don to work as labourers in others’ fields, in the adjoining areas of Manchar and Ghodegaon. Here the fields are more fertile and there is abundant water from the downward flow of the Sahyadri hills. Yield from traditional crops such as varai and sawa, which require less attention, has ensured some sustenance for them.

Shrinking forest cover, increasing animal population and unnatural climate events are making food scarce for a lot of animals, says Dr. Amol Waghmare, a local activist and Pune district president of the All India Kisan Sabha. “These animals could have migrated from other parts of the forest in search of food and water,” he adds. Incidentally, the gava were spotted in the early summer months of 2021 when food is usually scarce in the forest, say the people of Don.

Dr. Waghmare adds, “there are very few chaukis of the forest department near Don or in the adjoining areas. Most of the forest department officials live in the taluka which is 60-70 kilometres away,” speaking about the role of forest department in mitigating the human-animal conflict. “In case of emergencies, such as when leopards have entered people’s homes, it has taken considerable time for them [officials] to arrive. They also hesitate to come to villages at night,” he says.Sitaram Gawari, the deputy sarpanch of the village, who also incurred crop loss due to gava attacks, says that he has taken up this issue with the forest department multiple times. The department proposed to build a fence near the village to restrict the movement of the gava, after constant nudging. “This was unacceptable because the livelihoods of people are connected with the forest,” he says. The hungry bisons are still hanging around, and so Shivram and others will not prepare their fields for the coming cropping season. “I don’t see any reason to suffer the same devastation every year. I have suffered enough,” he says.

Ambegaon’s farmers fear raiding bisons

சூறையாடும் காட்டெருமைகளுக்கு பயப்படும் விவசாயிகள்

ਬਾਇਸਨ ਦੇ ਹਮਲਿਆਂ ਤੋਂ ਪਰੇਸ਼ਾਨ ਅੰਬੇਗਾਓਂ ਦੇ ਕਿਸਾਨ

ಕಾಡೆಮ್ಮೆಗಳ ದಾಳಿಗೆ ನಲುಗಿದ ಅಂಬೆಗಾಂವ್ ರೈತರು

കാട്ടുപോത്തുകളെ ഭയന്ന് അംബേഗാവിലെ കർഷകർ

गौरों के हमले के ख़ौफ़ में जीते अम्बेगांव के किसान

ଆମ୍ବେଗାଓଁର କୃଷକମାନଙ୍କୁ ବାଇସନ ଆକ୍ରମଣର ଭୟ

અંબેગાંવના ખેડૂતો પર મંડરાતો જંગલી ભેંસોના દરોડાનો ડર

बनभैंसा के आमद, खेती नंदावत

বনগরুর হামলায় অতিষ্ঠ অম্বেগাঁওয়ের চাষিরা

अम्बेगांव के किसानन में बनभैंसन के आतंक

মেঠোনৰ ভয়ত, ক্ষতিপূৰণৰ অভাৱত খেতি এৰিছে আম্বেগাঁৱৰ কৃষকে

आंबेगावच्या शेतकऱ्यांना गव्यांची धास्ती

گور کے حملوں سے پریشان امبے گاؤں کے کسان

అడవిదున్నల దాడులకు భయపడుతున్న అంబెగాఁవ్ రైతులు

Parchanpal

At present, we can only accept donations in Indian rupees by Indian citizens. All donations made to the CounterMedia Trust are eligible for exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Here is a copy of our exemption certificate.


PARI is changing the way Indian journalism reports and documents rural India.  

&nbsp;&nbsp;India is more than the elite of a few metros and towns. At PARI we bring news and information about the rest of this vast country. We are looking at rural lives and livelihoods, languages, communities, migrants and more. We need your help to pull off this most ambitious of Indian journalistic endeavours.

Frequently Asked Questions

Let’s get you acquainted

Welcome to PARI

Want to republish this article? Please write to <a href="mailto:zahra@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">zahra@ruralindiaonline.org</a> with a cc to <a href="mailto:namita@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">namita@ruralindiaonline.org</a>

IN TELUGU - Want to republish this article? Please write to <a href="mailto:zahra@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">zahra@ruralindiaonline.org</a> with a cc to <a href="mailto:namita@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">namita@ruralindiaonline.org</a>

Ambegaon’s farmers fear raiding bisons

The loss of forest habitats is driving Indian bison and other wildlife onto farms here in Maharashtra. The consequent crop destruction and low compensation are forcing farmers to abandon agriculture

Related stories

A rain-scented walk in Sivagangai

Living on ravaged land

Biswas and the bamboos on his bike

Recycling energy, Godda style

Bhadels of Goa

Pookadai: still throbbing with morning life

Koli Kadlas

Wheels of the rural Indian West

Living Under a Red Cloud in Bellary

Vedla – earrings of the Maher community

Kali: the dancer and his dreams

Farmer's diet worse than a convict's

Panimara's foot soldiers of freedom - 1

In Yavatmal, life goes on

Suicides are about the living, not the dead

Panimara's foot soldiers of freedom - 2

Death of a carpenter

Hoisa Shigmo!

Women farmers: weaving a life in Anantapur

Defiant in Dhinkia

Spice and all that's nice

Kerala's Green Army

The ‘jugaad’ not-a-mobile

Health as someone else's wealth

Calibrating in a Kudumbashree assembly unit