High on drugs, parrots die a slow death

In Rajasthan, a large number of parrots have been found to be addicted to opium. Every year in summers, parrots descend on the poppy fields to slurp on the milk oozing out of cuts made in the pods to ripen the yield.

The inebriated parrots fall prey to predatory birds and once the crop is harvested, these addicted parrots struggle for the life without their regular dose of addiction.

“It’s a yearly phenomenon and local farmer sowing poppy seeds has to pay heavy cost for this. Farmers sow the crop and parrots slurp the oozing milk and destroy the crop. After having their doze, parrots sit on the trees in an inebriated state and many times, they fall on ground due to overdose of opium milk,” said Dinesh Sharma, a forest ranger.

Parrots generally start descending to the field in the month of March after which they start behaving unusually. According to experts, this is the first step towards their death. “From March onwards, the parrots start tasting the poppy milk and eat the seeds. In two months’ time, they get so much addicted that their death is certain after the harvest of opium pods. But there is no mechanism to check it,” said Sharma.

Farmers are the worst sufferers because not only these parrots destroy their crop and eat their profits but, farmers also come under the surveillance of the narcotics department.

“Poppy farming is a highly controlled activity since its product, morphine, commands very high prices in the illegal narcotics trade. Licenses are issued by narcotics departments to sow the crop. If production falls short of estimated target, officials of narcotics department starts investigating the reason and it becomes very difficult for them to convince that the crop is eaten by parrots,” said Sujaan Mal Sirohi, a sarpanch from Chittorgarh.