Tamil Nadu Farmers Hold Dead Rats In Their Mouths To Protest Cauvery Water Dispute | Video

A group of farmers in Tamil Nadu's Tiruchirappalli resorted to a unique form of protest against the Karnataka government in the ongoing dispute over Cauvery water. They held lifeless rats in their mouths as a symbolic gesture.

A video of this "protest," shared by the news agency ANI, garnered over 62,000 views in just an hour. This demonstration is meant to convey that if Karnataka continues to withhold Cauvery water, the farmers, who have been driven into poverty due to the adverse impact of the water crisis on paddy cultivation, may have no choice but to resort to consuming rat meat for survival.

#WATCH | A group of Tamil Nadu farmers in Tiruchirappalli holding dead rats in their mouths protest against the Karnataka government and demand the release of Cauvery water to the state from Karnataka pic.twitter.com/CwQyVelyjF

— ANI (@ANI) September 26, 2023

Interestingly, this is not the first instance of farmers using this method of protest. In 2017, a 65-year-old individual named Chinnagodangy Palanisamy held a live mouse between his teeth to draw the government's attention to the dire circumstances of Tamil Nadu's farmers.

"I, along with my fellow farmers, sought to communicate the message that we might be compelled to consume mice if the situation does not improve," he explained to the BBC.

In 2016, a group of approximately 30 farmers staged a protest in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, clutching deceased rats in their mouths. They asserted that the water crisis had severely impacted paddy cultivation, and unless the government extended assistance, they would be compelled to turn to rat meat as a result of their economic hardship, as reported by TOI.