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Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Rampaging bison destroy crops in South Oropouche

by

16 days ago
20250714

Ram­pag­ing bi­son are de­stroy­ing crops and threat­en­ing liveli­hoods in Berridge Trace, South Oropouche, where a group of farm­ers say they are los­ing thou­sands of dol­lars in pro­duce.

The farm­ers, who cul­ti­vate over 25 acres of land, are call­ing on Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Ravi Rati­ram to in­ter­vene af­ter re­peat­ed com­plaints to po­lice and the Prae­di­al Lar­ce­ny Squad brought no re­sults.

The farm­ers say the an­i­mals, which be­long to a res­i­dent in the area, roam freely and are not tied or placed in pens. They tram­ple, up­root and feed on crops, then re­turn night af­ter night to do more dam­age, the farm­ers said yes­ter­day.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the com­mu­ni­ty yes­ter­day, the fields showed ev­i­dence of hoof prints and dam­aged plants. A corn­field had been eat­en down but the bi­son were nowhere to be found.

Farmer Mal­isa Har­rykissoon said the an­i­mals come on­to the fields at night or late evening. Say­ing it was tire­some to see their ef­forts go down the drain, Har­rykissoon said: “We just want help. We want the an­i­mals to stay be­yond the riv­er and stop com­ing in­to our lands.”

She added that the bisons were al­so dan­ger­ous.

“Every day is a dif­fer­ent scene. These an­i­mals ran down my 10-year-old son. We are tired,” she said.

Her fa­ther Bhopal Har­rykissoon, who cul­ti­vates five acres of ochroes, hot pep­pers, and corn, said the five bisons en­tered his field on Fri­day night.

“They ate every­thing. This is not the first time. Last week, they mashed up toma­toes. We keep re­plant­i­ng, but we are get­ting nowhere,” Har­rykissoon said.

An­oth­er farmer, Bhadear­am Hen­ry, who al­so cul­ti­vates ochroes and hot pep­pers, said he has been re­port­ing the dam­age for years.

“The ochroes are at bear­ing stage. The bisons walk through and break the branch­es. They mash the roots and the plants die in days. I went to the sta­tion many times. The of­fi­cers say they talked to the man but noth­ing has changed,” Hen­ry said.

Farmer Avinash Har­rykissoon, who grows let­tuce, pi­men­to, and bo­di, said: “I al­so re­port­ed the dam­ages to the po­lice, but they said they can’t do any­thing. I don’t want trou­ble. I just want the an­i­mals to stop com­ing.”

He said he was dis­cour­aged that af­ter work­ing and in­vest­ing so much, they had noth­ing to reap.

“We are not ask­ing for mon­ey. We are ask­ing for ac­tion. Some­one needs to con­trol the an­i­mals. We work hard. All we want is to reap what we plant.”

Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed Min­is­ter Ravi Rati­ram for com­ment but there was no re­sponse up to press time last night. How­ev­er, a prae­di­al lar­ce­ny of­fi­cial said the mat­ter would be ad­dressed.

—Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va


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