Porcupines spell doom on world’s costliest spice

Pampore, Dec 2: Standing at one end of his saffron farm, Ghulam Muhammad is gazing across his farm, trying to estimate the damage caused to his saffron farm by the  .

Ghulam Muhammad, a saffron cultivator from saffron-rich Konibal village, 4 km from Pampore town, is carefully assessing the impact on the crop.

“It has crossed over 50 percent this year,” he said, letting out a doleful sigh.

Each year, with the onset of winter, porcupines increasingly attack the saffron farms, eating up the corms during the night.

Corms, the bulb-like structures, grow underground and produce the world’s costliest spice – saffron.

In the absence of any effective methods to contain the rodent with quills all over its body, the farmers resort to conventional means, which often fail to yield the desired results.

“We spray garlic and chilly water, but it has not been effective in deterring the porcupines,” Ghulam Muhammad said.

Many farmers said that the shortage of water in their farms prevented them from even using conventional methods.

“More or less, all the borewells installed by the government are defunct,” they said.

Besides Konibal, farmers face the porcupine threat in the saffron-rich villages of Lethpora, Khrew, Dusoo, Patalbagh, Androsa, Samboora, and Chandhara.

The rodent, according to the cultivators, becomes more active between December and March, devouring large quantities of the planted corms.

Last year, the Department of Agriculture and Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Kashmir (SKUAST-K) in tandem with a private company launched a trial of an organic repellent spray aimed at combating the increasing damage caused by the porcupines to saffron fields. The product contained a bad-smell repellent, which created an unpleasant environment for the rodent.  However, according to the farmer, the method provided only short-term relief.

Additionally, the rodent could not be eliminated as it is protected under Schedule IV of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, making its killing a punishable offence.

Wildlife Warden South Suhail Ahmad Wagay told Greater Kashmir that they would visit the affected areas and see what could be done.

He said that apart from the chemical replants, a range of measures could be taken to contain the porcupines.

“We could install the cages to catch the rodent or the farmers could install solar fencing,” he said.

The official emphasised that solar fencing, if farmers could afford it, was the permanent solution.