Farm owners in India have contacted authorities about opium-addicted parrots, who continuously attack their poppy farms.
Madhya Pradesh farmers said parrots kept raiding their farms and ruining their opium crops in an attempt to get high, according to a report by This is Insider.
The opium crops were planted for medical purposes and farmers are doing their best to save them from the pesky birds.
Day and night, farmers watched over the poppies and even played loud music to get rid of them, but all these were useless.
NDTV reports that the heist created a massive loss for the farmers in the Neemuch district.
“One poppy flower gives around 20-25 grams of opium. But a large group of parrots feed on these plants around 30-40 times a day and some even fly away with poppy pods. This affects the produce,” one opium farmer told NDTV.
According to Insider, this is not the first time parrots have attacked farms. The birds attack the farms once farmers slit open the opium poppy pods.
“Usually, the parrots would make sound when in a group. But these birds have become so smart that they don’t make any noise when they swoop on the fields. The birds start chirping when they fly away with opium pods,” a farmer told The Mirror in 2017.
