NOT SURE IF TITLE OF STORY IS GRAMMATICAL BUT STORY IS INTERESTING.

BT August 19, 2007 - Martshala, Samdrup Jongkhar: Elsewhere, they are hunted for the top notch after-bite-taste of their meat. But in Martshala, the wild deer is the hunter. Of late, these non violent creatures have found the bark of orange trees tastier than grass.

In the past few weeks the wild deers destroyed about 6,000 orange trees in Martshala. This is in addition to the 12 acres of maize cultivation destroyed by the wild boars.

The farmers are alarmed by the increasing animal encroachment every year; boars have always been a usual threat but now, the wild deer are proving even worse.

“It seems there is a competition among the animals,” said Jamtsho, 45, a farmer from Dingshing Zor, “Recently, the wild stag has caused more damage than the boars.”

Jamtsho has an acre of orange orchard.

“Two weeks back I woke up one morning to find all my orange trees naked white, barkless!”

Similarly, Sangay Wangdi, 43, from Tshochalo village, found all of the orange trees in his one-and-a-half acre, destroyed and useless. “The deer have eaten up the barks of each tree and the trees will inevitably die sooner or later.”

“It seems that the stags are becoming more dangerous especially this year,” said Karchung, the Martshala Gup, “In the past these stags used to destroy around 3,000 trees annually, but this year the damage has shockingly doubled.”

He added that few farmers were previously availed with some loans to expand and enhance their cash crop cultivation, especially orange cultivation; and the recent damage has made them apprehensive about not being able to pay back the loans if the wild deer continue its rampage.

“The farmers are requesting if they could at least manage loans for fencing their orchards to prevent further damage and loss,” said the gup.

Since orange is the main cash crop here, the farmers are worried that their family might have to starve; besides the other crops like maize and paddy has been largely destroyed by the wild boar further adding to their misery.

“Usually I manage to get 60 bags of maize from my field but this year, I was shocked when I got only six bags,” said a farmer from Kaptang Village.

Towpo, 48, also laments over the loss of his crops in his two acres maize field, which according to him was his only source of income after losing his other crops to the wild deer.

“The worst thing about these animals, besides eating up the crops and barks, is that after their rampage even the cows and pigs refuse to eat the remaining,” said Norjay, 48, whose two acres of crop cultivation was destroyed three weeks ago.

According to the villagers, these animals encroach in large group; 40 to 50 usually and at times it exceeds 100.

The animals even attack during broad daylight and make it impossible for the farmers to work in their fields alone. But, no causalities has been reported till date.

Martshalla geog has nine villages with a population of 4,591. There are more than 50,000 orange trees in the whole geog. 70% of farmers generate their income from orange cultivation.

Now, the farmers have little hope that they may earn any income this year, since after losing the maize to the boars, their last hope on the citric fruit is shattered by the wild deer.