Druggie parrots plunder poppy fields to feed opium addictions

Breeding endangered Puerto Rican parrot near the Rio Abajo Nature Preserve, in Puerto Rico. (ap)

Junkie parrots are plundering poppy fields to feed their opium addictions.

They have learned not to squawk and fly silently into fields to nab the drug-laden pods.

Video shows them retreating to high branches to gorge on the plants, grown under state control.

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Farmers now claim they are getting warnings from the Indian government’s narcotics department – which controls opium farming – over their reduced yields.

This phenomenon was first reported in 2015, but this year it has spread across to other regions for the first time.

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Sobharam Rathod, an opium farmer from Neemach, India, estimates parrots are stealing around ten percent of his crop and he has been given a warning.

He said: “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.

“We have tried every trick possible to keep the birds at bay but these addicts keep coming back even at the risk of their life.

“Like we keep an eye on them, but they also keep an eye on us.

“The moment you lower your guard the army of parrots silently swoop onto your field and take away the bulbs.”

In 2015 drug raiding parrots were reported in Chittorgarh in the state of Rajasthan.

But this year they have been found making a huge dent in crops 40 miles away in Neemach in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

According to farmers, the numbers of birds raiding their fields are increasing with every passing year.

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