People in Kerala village spend nights battling large snails that devour plants and nibble at walls
Giant snail invasion
The courtyard of Retnamma’s house resembles a battlefield. There are dead giant snails strewn around, slime oozing from their brown conch-shaped shells. “These are the ones I killed last night with salt,” says the 60-year-old resident of Konni village in the foothills of the Western Ghats in Kerala. “I was killing these cursed creatures in the morning, too, or they would have invaded my kitchen,” she adds while exclaiming, “Look, there is one clinging to the bathroom door!” There was indeed a Giant African Snail clinging to the door. There were more, on the outer walls of the house. The snails like to nibble on lime and cement walls.
The scene seems to be right out of a Hollywood flick—giant creatures swarming all over, destroying and consuming whatever comes their way. A fully grown snail measures 20 cm in length, seven cm in thickness, and can weigh up to 750 gm.
The snails emerge in hordes at night from burrows and under rocks where they hide during the day. Konni in Pattanamthitta district was once famous as a centre for taming elephants. Now, it is gathering a reputation for having a multiplying population of Giant African Snails (Achatina fulica). The mollusc is listed as one of the top 100 invasive species. They were first sighted in Konni about four years ago.
Initially, the invasion was restricted to ward 11 of the Konni gram panchayat. It has now spread to six more wards. The mollusc finds the dampness and moisture prevalent in Konni all year round very agreeable. It hibernates in winter, emerges with the summer showers and multiplies as soon as monsoon sets in. The snail lays as many as 400 eggs at a time, of which about 380 (95 per cent) hatch; up to 1,200 eggs are laid in a year, says Ratheesh Babu, a social worker. His twin daughters, Swetha and Swathy, students of class XI, studied the snails for a year with the assistance of the science club in the Republican Vocational Higher Secondary School where they study.
“We were forced to undertake our own study because the government did precious little,” says Babu. The young researchers found that the snail count was 800 on each cent of land (one cent equals 0.004 hectare) in 2009. It multiplied to 7,000 to 8,000 in one year.
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The panchayat is yet to decide on the next plan of action. Panchayat president Babu Veliyath says the panchayat is launching a three-year programme to eradicate the snails with a budget of Rs 18 lakh. The local body has received in-principle sanction of Rs 6.4 lakh for 2011-2012. But the panchayat has not decided what measures to adopt now to eradicate the pest.
Possible solutions
KFRI has identified 29 other spots in Kerala (see map) which are under the threat of the invasive snails. The institute happens to be the secretariat of the Asia Pacific Forest Invasive Species Network, which has 33 member countries that cooperate in monitoring and eradicating forest invasive species in Asia-Pacific region. KFRI recommends spraying a solution of copper sulphate and tobacco to get rid of the snails.
Sajeev says what is happening in Konni is representative of other “snail spots”.
He adds that one of the reasons for the snails making a comeback each year in increasing numbers is slackening of vigilance once the snails go into hibernation. Land left untended and heaps of waste left around in villages provide fertile breeding grounds for the snails when they awake from slumber.
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