NIZAMABAD: Farmers of Madnoor mandal find themselves in a Catch-22 situation these days. Deer straying into their farmlands have spelled doom for them. While the distraught farmers are already suffering losses due to the deer menace, any bid to chase the deer away can land them in legal trouble.
The mandal, which is 90 km from the district headquarters, has around 19,000 hectares of cultivable land. However, the increasing deer population in the nearby forest area is taking a toll on farmers. Deer, moving in herds, enter the farms during the day and destroy the crops.
However, the farmers have no solution for this menace. Fearing action from forest department authorities, they can’t hire hunters to control the deer. Their pleas with state Forest minister J Ramanna as well as the forest department officials have gone unheard. Meanwhile, Nizamabad Divisional Forest Officer (DFO)VSNV Prasad said, “We don’t catch the deer because they are very sensitive and our attempts may lead to their death.”