Cherupuzha (Kannur): Having lost his vision to cancer, a local farmer has devised a low-cost, water-powered acoustic deterrent to protect his crops from wildlife incursions.

The contraption effectively keeps wild boars, monkeys, porcupines, and Asian palm civets away from the nine-acre farmland owned by I C Joseph in Kottathalachi.

The mechanism is built entirely from discarded materials, primarily a bicycle wheel and an obsolete domestic gas cylinder. The operation relies on gravity-fed water piped down from an uphill pond. The flow of water spins the bicycle wheel at high speed, causing a piece of iron attached to the rim to strike the suspended gas cylinder, producing a loud, rhythmic clanging sound that frightens approaching animals away from the fields.

Joseph’s family migrated to Kottathalachi from Ramapuram in Kottayam in 1970. His plantation originally cultivated coconut, areca nut and black pepper. However, plant diseases wiped out a substantial portion of the yield. Joseph explained that with wildlife incursions intensifying, he developed the sound-based device to safeguard his remaining crops.