Wednesday, July 26 2006 13:02 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Vadakara: A village in north Kerala that for some years has been a victim of invasion by giant African snails has finally succeeded in eliminating over 50,000 of them.

The giant snails, which infested the coastal Azhiyoor village in Vadakara, posed a threat to the village economy as they started destroying crops and coconut trees.

The villagers managed to kill 50,000 snails in a planned cooperative operation.

"This has been a problem in Azhiyoor for the past two to three years. But earlier it was not this serious. In the past three months the entire village has been infested with snails, which have been destroying crops. They were a real pain to all of us," A.T. Sreedharan, the village council president, told IANS.

Matters took a turn for the worse when coconut trees became the latest victim of these giant snails.

Local legislator M.K. Premnath said: "This became a nuisance and a real problem. We called in agricultural experts and held several meetings. Finally it was decided to form groups of people and bury these snails in large pits by pouring kerosene and salt."

The villagers now get to work early morning to catch the snails and bury them.

Said Sreedharan: "After our new operation, the number of snails has come down and we feel we have killed more than half of them. After the huge public cooperation, we are confident that in the coming days we will be able to free our village from these snails."

The entire operation has been funded by the village council.