Indian farmers use muzzle loaders?
That is one poorly-written and unprofessional article. I’m guessing something was lost in translation.
Farmin’, ur doin’ it wrong!
Forget the muzzle loader, the obvious question we need answered is whether he was in his pajamas.
The farmers in these forest areas are always in constant fear of elephants ,which destroy the crops, and takes preventve measures ( Electric fences ) ,unauthorised by wildlife department.
Som of them do keep illegal guns to prevent these animals from eating the crops.
This particular area is also known for notorious thieves who kill elephants for ivory.
It sounds like it was an eighteenth century blackpowder pistol which might have been a family heirloom.
Declan
From the link:
Indian, Is that a reasonable amount of compensation?
No, according to the farmers …
The minimum price at which the government will buy harvested ragi from farmers is Rs. 915/quintal (cite), so Rs. 600 is definitely on the low side, but not ridiculously so. Obviously I’m not a farmer, so my views on this might differ from theirs.
It wasn’t translated; the Times of India is an English daily newspaper. I have found, however, that their copy-editing standards for their online edition fall far short of the printed one. The printed edition normally holds itself to higher journalistic standards, but I suspect that the lack of revenue from the online edition means that less attention is devoted to it.
A lot of Indian farmers do indeed keep old muskets and pistols, often old enough to be muzzle-loaders, and definitely old enough to be less than completely reliable.
Why would there be an Elephant in his pajamas?
600 Indian rupees is about twelve bucks American. I have no idea how stiff a penalty that actually is once you factor in the cost of living over there.
In a Groucho Marx movie, Captain Spaudling, the African explorer, recounts, “One night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas, I’ll never know.”
Okay, here’s what they need to do: PETA needs to spend their money reimbursing farmers in India, Africa for damage done by elephants and in North America for damage done by wolves instead of doing inane stuff in the USA.