The Norwegian Blue parrot might pine for the fjords, but some Indian parrots hanker for something completely different.
2020 has already given us Murder Hornets and Monkey Gang Wars. Now we’ve got Parrot Drug Crime to deal with.
Farms in India have reached out to the authorities after repeatedly being attacked by opium-addicted parrots.
These birds have a monkey on their backs and there’s nothing they won’t do to get their fix.
Farmers in Madhya Pradesh say their opium crops are being ruined by parrots who keep returning to raid their farms in an attempt to get high. The farmers have been guarding the fields day and night to protect their poppies, but the birds are willing to risk it all to get their beaks on the opium, which is being farmed for medical purposes.
Playing loudspeakers has also failed to rid the farms of the birds, whose opium problem is too far developed to let a bit of noise deter them.
So, that’s the drugs’n’rock’n’roll sorted. Best not to give these winged opium fiends any more ideas.
The parrots are creating massive losses for the farmers in the Neemuch district, NDTV reports.
“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 cultivator told NDTV.
“These opium-addicted parrots are wreaking havoc.”
This isn’t the first time parrots have attacked opium farms, it’s an ongoing problem in the area. The first reports of the raids were in 2015, and they have continued ever since.
Of course, India isn’t the only place where farmers have to deal with non-human junkies. Here in Tasmania, local opium farmers began noticing strange crop circles appear in their poppy fields. No, it wasn’t aliens flying high – it was stoned wallabies doing some circle-work. The trippy-skippies were busting into poppy paddocks, getting wasted and hopping in circles.
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