Until a year ago the emus were sold as birds of fantasy that would generate income for life just like ‘Kamadenu’.
While the bubble surrounding the emu farming business had burst months ago with the arrest of emu farm owners in Erode and surrounding districts, what must come as a shock to gullible investors is this - the bird is not even worth one-eighth of its marketed price.
Well, the Home Department has calculated that the emu is worth just Rs 60 per kg. That’s the figure the Department has quoted in an order issued last week while attaching 220 emus belonging to the Erode-based M/s Suthi Emu Farms, one of the several farms that had wound up business.
Each of these 220 emus weighs 50 kg, which brings the total value of the seized emus to a mere Rs 6.60 lakh or Rs 3,000 per bird. Whereas, in reality, scores of investors had deposited Rs 1.5 lakh each with the emu farming companies for buying half-a-dozen emu chicks. In other words they paid Rs 25,000 per bird.
The seized and attached birds from Suthi Emu Farms will be handed over to the competent authority under the Tamil Nadu Protection of Interests of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act, 1997 for liquidation.
In another move, the Department has attached three vehicles including a Mahindra Scorpio and an Eicher Van belonging to the Dindigul-based M/s Subasree Emu Farms India Private Limited, which had defaulted in the return of deposits. These vehicles are worth Rs 25.50 lakh.
Properties owned by the promoters of other fraudulent financial and marketing firms - G1 Emu’s Zone India Pvt Ltd, Queen Emu Farms, Alma Emu Farms, Green Life Farms and Poultry and Nandhu Copra, Poultry and Cattle , all based at Erode, have also been attached.
In Namakkal district too, the properties of Venkateswara Investments and M/s Jenith Herbals have been attached.