cholakollai bommai ............ and robo scarecrow !

The modern day couple happily living together have no time to cook and most of the fab food is bought from outside, eaten at big hotels or ready made food in packets. Various brands of varied fried items rule the roost.   Till a few decades ago, people used to do lot of things at home – those found in abundance during a particular period would be processed, dried and kept in some for future use – that way the open storey on top house would be used for drying food items [varral, vadam and more…] women and children would sit with some protection from hot sun to ensure that crows, small birds and squirrel do not eat these food stuffs.  They would keep some make shift structure, at times torn black Umbrellas to scare away the birds !

Heard the song ‘Kurukku Chiruthavale’ in  Shankar’s hit film  Mudhalvan starring Arjun, Manisha Koirala.    The theme was the ‘One day CM’ the offer made by the politician Raguvaran who when cornered by the questions of ambitious TV journalist, Pughazhendi (Arjun).  Being a hero, sure he will have to run around the heroine and one such song is this – this song sung by Hariharan and Mahalakshmi Iyer will have the background of scarecrows !

Scarecrow essentially is a decoy,  traditionally, a human figure dressed in old clothes and placed in fields by farmers to discourage birds such as crows or sparrows from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.  In Tamil it is popularly called ‘Cholakollai bommai’ – the doll in the cornfield – pot would usually be the head,  stuffed with rice-straw and covered with old torn shirts, pants and more. 

Away in UK there is the ‘festival for the scarecrows’  taking place every year at Lancashire.  In the village of Orton, Eden, scarecrows are displayed each year, often using topical themes such as a Dalek exterminating a Wind turbine to represent local opposition to a wind farm.   It takes place in other places like Staffordshire, Scotland, North Ayrshire and more.   In the USA, St. Charles, Illinois hosts an annual "Scarecrow Festival".  In the valley region of Nova Scotia, Canada there reportedly are scarecrows with pumpkin heads doing various things such as playing the fiddle or riding a wooden horse. Cats and pigs made from pumpkins are also present.

This one reported in MailOnline is technology at its best.  It is machines shooting long-range laser beams to scare birds and they  sweep at random across an area from 200 acres to 3,000 acres.   It is a war that has been raging since the beginning of agriculture, but now farmers have a new weapon in the battle to keep birds from eating their crops - laser shooting robots. Farmers in Holland have been trialling a new type of scarecrow that fires green laser beams across fields to keep birds away from crops. The system, called Agrilaser, uses an automated robot that can be programmed to sweep lasers at random across areas ranging from 200 acres to more than 3,000 acres.

Researchers have been developing the robotic scarecrow in an attempt to produce bird repellents that are more socially acceptable than noise based methods that are commonly used. Most farmers combine these loud noises, usually from propane canons or firecrackers, with traditional scarecrows that mimic the shape of humans, to keep birds away from their crops. It appears the Dutch are at the cutting edge of zany uses for laser technology.  They have tested the lasers successfully  at speeds of up to 50mph and hope it could eventually make the old excuse of leaves on the line for delays a thing of the past.  The new device, developed by Dutch bird control researchers at the Centre for Agriculture and Environment, in Culemborg, Holland, chases birds away with no noise.

The trajectory of the lasers can be programmed from a laptop and it then makes random sweeps across fields. Tests at an apple and pear orchard saw losses due to birds almost entirely disappear over a three week period, according to Arnold Bosgoed, the farmer who has been trialing the system. Gijs Kuneman, director of CLM, said: 'The damage caused in the fruit industry by birds is well known and seems to be increasing. 'It can lead to substantial reduction in production. The smallest hole in a pear means it can rot and infect the whole crate. 'We've been looking for different methods of chasing the birds away with as little disturbance as possible. Mr Kuneman added that the system worked by creating the impression of movement on the field, which scares the birds away without harming them. 'We tested it on crows - jackdaws and rooks - and they were all scared away. They tend to be the smartest birds so if it works on them it should work on other birds.

The system is random so there is no pattern the birds can discern. They say that in  a densely populated country like the Netherlands there is already much light pollution so it probably will not lead to many complaints.  Once programmed, the robotic laser, can be left to scare birds away through the day and night while fruit ripens. It is hoped the device will save farmers a great deal of money

Really enticing technology indeed !

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

9^th Dec 2o14.