Daijiworld Media Network - Chamarajanagar (SP)

Chamarajanagar, Aug 5: People moving on the two national highways passing through Chamarajanagar district come across hills and hillocks full of greenery and robust sunflower crops grown in plain fields in between. This serves as a beautiful locale for shooting photos. Tourists get enamoured by the beauty of nature and click ‘selfies’ by standing in the fields. At the same time, the farmers are cashing in on the selfie craze of the tourists.

As the district got good pre monsoon rains, sunflower plants have come up beautifully all across Gundlupet taluk. National highway 67 connects Gundlupet with Tamil Nadu while another national highway leads to Kerala. All along these highways, one can see beautiful sunflowers swaying to the wind and inviting the tourists to enjoy their look.

A large number of tourists stop their vehicles by the roadside and go into the sunflower fields to take photographs. They also take group photos.

Because of the selfie craze, sunflower crop has been harmed many times by the tourists. People, in an enthusiasm to click photos, often break the sunflower plants, causing loss to the farmers. To avoid the losses, the farmers who have grown this crop have been collecting anywhere between ten to 50 rupees from the tourists. Abhishek, a farmer from Kannegala, says that the farmers thought of this plan to recover their losses as the tourists’ breakdown the sunflower plants grown with the hard labour of the farmers.

Collection of charges, besides bringing revenue, also helps the farmers to keep an eye on their fields against unnecessary damage. People feel that the farmers deserve the charges because they have toiled to raise sunflower crops as it is difficult to stop the tourists from entering the fields and taking photos. There is a huge rush particularly during the weekends at these fields.