Owners of coffee plantations here seem to be on a gifting spree, of jackfruits grown as a secondary copy. The beneficiaries are fruit vendors from far-off places.
The generosity is not without reason: They want to keep animals like elephants and bisons, which are attracted by the smell of ripening jackfruits, out of their plantations.
Elephants love to relish jackfruits, while bisons feed on low-hanging fruits.
Farmers complain that these animals not only feed on the jackfruits, but also damage other crops.
Some farmers are giving away the jackfruits for free to vendors from Davangere, Shivamogga, Bengaluru and Tamil Nadu, while others are plucking the unripened fruits from the trees and just throwing them away.
When a few plantation workers went to spray pesticides on the coffee crop at a plantation belonging to Hemanth in Chikkara village last week, they had a narrow escape when a bison came too close to them.
Hemanth said that he had asked the vendors to take the jackfruits for free.
Drivers of vehicles transporting grocery items from Davangere to Somwarpet collect the jackfruits from the plantations and sell them in Davangere for Rs 100 to Rs 150.
Raw jackfruits are used to prepare various items in food industries such as chips, pickle and so on.
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