The use of eco friendly bullock cart reduced considerably after the mechanisation of farming waded into our villages. As long as the bullocks were used for tilling the farm land, they were also used to pull the goods cart to the cities and back to the villages. Once tractors and tillers took over, farmers stopped rearing the bullocks, simply because they were an unnecessary expenditure.

There are as many as 8,000 people living in Mudigere town and over 5,000 people have vehicles varying from two-wheelers to goods carriers.

Taking into consideration that the usage of carts has gone down drastically, the Agriculture Department did give carts to 50 people at a subsidised price but they have been kaput.

Survivor

“There is a saying that there should be a cart per household. But in Malnad, development has slightly changed the saying and today it is ‘one vehicle per household’,” says Srinivas, a resident of Bilagula, the only bullock cart owner in the village.

He says that people now do not want to have a cart because the cost of one bullock has rised from Rs 6,000 to 60,000 and further it is practically impossible to get good quality wood to build the cart. Mechanisation of farming too has played a large role in vanishing of carts, he added.