Click to play videoCalicut/ Thiruvananthapuram:A village in Kerala is under severe attack of the giant African snails.
What looks like a bonfire in the forest is actually people of Kozhikode's Azhiyoor village burning African snails.
The giant snails, originally from east African countries of Kenya and Tanzania, were first spotted in the village four years ago. But they are definitely not growing in numbers at at a snail's pace.
"There are too many of them and few are even bigger in size. It's almost everywhere, on trees, on plants, even on walls. Few weeks ago plantations and cement walls were destroyed," says a local resident, Farhatulla.
Though the snails do not harm humans, they consume crops. And that’s not all, they lay almost 200 eggs at a time, leaving villagers with little time to kill them.
And the only way to tackle the menace is by sprinkling salt on the creepy crawlies.
"No idea where it came from. Now the Panchayat has decided to distribute salt among villagers to kill them. There is no other way, as we have no scientific knowledge to kill them," says Panchayat Member, Salim.
As the snails grow in number, patience is becoming a fast disappearing virtue in the village.
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