This gritty woman pig-catcher from TN shows the way

Kumram Bheem-Asifabad: Where there is a will, there is a way. This adage was proved true by a woman who chose the most difficult and unusual job to keep the pot boiling. And in the process, she is also providing employment to nearly 60 persons. Meet professional woman pig-catcher Sujatha Ramanathan of Madurai in Tamil […]

Kumram Bheem-Asifabad: Where there is a will, there is a way. This adage was proved true by a woman who chose the most difficult and unusual job to keep the pot boiling. And in the process, she is also providing employment to nearly 60 persons.

Meet professional woman pig-catcher Sujatha Ramanathan of Madurai in Tamil Nadu. She is, perhaps, the only woman who took up the difficult job of ensnaring and catching stray pigs and leaving them in forest areas. Sujatha has now been engaged by the municipal authorities of Kagaznagar town in Asifabad district to catch pigs, which have turned out to be a health hazard for the people living in the municipality. An estimated 600 stray pigs are roaming on the streets of this municipality.

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Unsure of methods of dealing with the pig population in the Municipality, the civic authorities sought the help of Sujatha, who is known to have undertaken similar assignments from different civic bodies in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Sujatha and her team of 20 persons came to Kagaznagar and began ensnaring the pigs before the pig-rearers raised an objection. Her team caught nearly 100 pigs so far but had to suspend the work in view of the objections raised at some places.

Sujatha (42) is a gritty woman. After her husband died in a road accident, she took up the profession. Her husband was also into the same work and she had an opportunity to learn a trick or two in the profession. After his untimely death, she had no other option go but to take up her husband’s profession. “I am proud to be helping many civic bodies in checking the menace of the pigs not only in Tamil Nadu but also in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. I was called to Telangana’s Kaghaznagar municipality for the first time,” Sujata told ‘Telangana Today.’

She employs about 60 workers and has been in the business for the last nine years. Sujatha, who studied till Class X, claimed that she was the only woman in the country to choose a career in catching hogs. “I am often complimented by Commissioners of municipalities for being in this unique profession. As far as I know, I am the first woman in India to venture into this tough field. My teams caught nearly 10,000 pigs so far,” she reveals.

Her teams use nets to capture and later release the animals in the nearby forests. She charges a fee of around Rs 200 and Rs 350 per pig.

Sujata says catching pigs was a risky and difficult field, but it was inevitable for her as she needs to run her family and provide education to her sons. She recalls how she was humiliated and sometimes assaulted by locals for capturing the boars in certain parts. “My workers and I were thrashed in Anantapur a few years ago, but police moved in time to save us,” she recalled. She says she earns anywhere between Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000 per month, adding that various municipalities including some in Maharashtra also contact her to tackle the problem.

“There are some families rearing pigs in the town. We will educate them about the hazards of pig-rearing. We will show some alternate employment to them and relaunch the initiative to catch pigs” says municipal commissioner CVN Raju.

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