Catch snails in this Kerala village and stand a chance to win Rs 12 crore

In a bid to get rid of the Giant African Snail menace that has been causing extensive damage to crops, a village in the Alappuzha district of Kerala has launched a year-long campaign to catch the snails.

To motivate the participants, even an Onam bumper lottery ticket with prize money of Rs 12 crore is also being offered to those who catch the highest number of snails.

The 12th ward of Muhamma panchayat has launched the campaign after the vegetable farmers of the region were fed up with the African snail menace, like many other regions.

Ward member Latheesh B Chandran, who made the initiative, told DH that already over 10,000 African Snails were caught and destroyed by the people. Onam bumper tickets of the Kerala lottery were given as prizes to ten persons who caught the highest number of snails in the five-day drive held from August 1 to 5.

Chandra said that the severity of the issue came to notice after he launched an initiative to make the ward self-sufficient in vegetables. Most farmers said that the self-sufficiency mission was almost impossible due to the African Snail menace. Even saplings of chilly could not be grown in the region due to the snail menace. This situation led to the novel initiative of a campaign to catch African snails as there was no other option to destroy the snails.

With the help of agriculture experts, training was given to the local people on methods to catch the African snails, especially by attracting snails using leaves of cabbage and papaya during the night and destroying it by depositing them in saltwater. A one-year-long campaign was initiated in June. A five-day drive to catch snails is being carried out during the first five days of every alternate month and the first two phases went off successfully.

It was just to motivate the people that lottery tickets costing Rs 300 were offered as prizes to those catching the highest number of snails. The winners caught up to 1,500 snails in five days. The winners were decided by counting the shells.

Chandra said that the initiative was already showing results with many farmers now able to grow vegetables. The village hopes to be self-sufficient in meeting the vegetable requirements for this Onam festival to a large extent, he said.