The Award Winning Woman Farmer

For the last couple of days, I was contemplating how I would celebrate Dussera this year. Eureka! What else would be more apt than featuring a successful woman farmer to mark the occasion of Vijayadasami (The Tenth day of victory) and worshipping Goddess Durga (embodiment of feminine and creative energy)!

By the time Karra Sakuntala was awarded the States Best Woman Farmer Award, she had only one year of experience in Agriculture. She resigned her government job as a Teacher and started working on thier 20-acre farm. She has a vermicompost unit and conducts awareness programmes at her own cost to other farmers in aspects of sweet lime cultivation. She headed the District Sweet lime Growers association and was also awarded by several agencies. She says that she is not interested in wasting her time applying for bank loans.

Following is the newsclipping from Eenadu Tuesday Oct. 7 2008

The plant which drives snakes away

While I was fancying the idea of living in an arboretum, becoming one with nature spiritually (but sharing knowledge in the real world scenario) ... hisssss `snakes' jolted me to the ground reality. However, I was trying to make a case in favour of my arboretum lifestyle, convincing myself, that if at all one has to die, dying of a snake-bite is far more eco-friendly and non-violent than getting crushed in a road accident.

In the meanwhile, when my son was narrating the beautiful monsoon landscape of Karimnagar I was very happy that he started admiring the outside world, with his head turned from computer monitors and TV screens. Although the fear of snakes was lurking inside, I tried to remain silent till he himself mentioned about `snakes' during one of those landscape description sessions over the cell phone. He coming face to face (feet to face!) with a snake threw chills over my spine and I promptly asked him to stop going to that place.

As it usually happens with most teenagers, he comforted me that his friend has planted `some tella usiri ' plant in and around his house and it is quite safe being there. That gave me a clue and in my Internet search I found a news story in Hindu paper describing its use in Adilabad area. Thanks to that news item as it also gave the scientific name of the so called snake repellent plant.

It is Trifolium repens. Now I have the key to the worlds knowledge of this plant. This is the power of the `binomial classification' coupled with today's communication technology.

Use of this plant against snakes is not overwhelmingly reported, although it is mentioned on a few occasions. The plant is also associated with bees. . . Also ..with L.U.C.K. It is lucky to find one with a fourth leaf... I didn't share this nugget of information with my son.. for obvious safety reasons.
(The plants my son saw were said to be more bushy and big-sized than those seen in the Trifolium repens pictures on the net. Could it be a different species or subspecies.. or just a geographical variation?)

Ref. Many lives lost due to snakebites S. Harpal Singh
Lack of awareness in rural societies believed to be reason for the fatalities
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2008/01/02/stories/2008010257090300.htm

More about the luck aspect at http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-four-leaf-clover.htm