Telangana Adivasis are still using indigenous methods

They devise instruments from scrap and material available at hand to create sounds that scare them —instead of killing them —especially wild boar and deer.

For example, they hang two steel plates side by side on a tree branch in the fields, the contact creating an off-putting sound. They also beat small, empty iron drums and beer bottles and use slings to throw stones. Some of these methods have been in use since time immemorial, like hanging damaged white plastic bags that once held rice or urea to convey the impression of there being a human presence. A scarecrow is a common enough ploy, but they also torch waste wood. They also keep birds at bay, using a sling from a manche or platform built on a tree and placed in the middle of an agricultural field.

Kursinge Nagorao of Chapral village in Utnoor mandal said that even today the Adivasis depended on traditional knowledge systems that had been transmitted down the generations and had successfully protected their pulses and grain from depredation by animals and birds. “Saving the standing crops in this way is a must for the Adivasis as their fields are located in or near the forests,” he said.