Efficacy of the “Ashta Garunda Chakraya” for repelling of macro herbivorous pests that prey upon agricultural crops

Abstract

“Ashta Garunda Chakraya”, also known as “Ashta Guruluwa”, is unique traditional astrological systems that resemble the eight directions via eight animal energies while utilizing the interactions between nine planets, stars and rashi in the astrology. It is mainly composed of five major components, namely, “Brahma Guruluwa”, “Vishnu Guruluwa”, “Shiva Guruluwa”, “Uma Guruluwa” and “Indra Guruluwa”. The current study attempted to evaluate the efficacy and applicability of the Ashta Garunda Chakraya for repelling of macro herbivores that prey upon agricultural crops. Eight agricultural areas were selected randomly within the kurunegala and Nuwara Eliya districts as the intervention sites. The auspicious time that can repel the target herbivores was calculated at each instance and four sticks that could emerge the energy of the auspicious time were placed at the four boundaries of the selected agricultural plot. At each occasion four sticks similar to the above ones were placed in the neighbouring agricultural plot without following along with specific auspicious time as the control. The numbers of target pests (elephants, buffaloes, wild boars, rats and monkeys) that enter both intervention and control sites were enumerated throughout a year, while inspecting any damage done to the crops. As suggested by the results, zero damage was done to the cultivated crops by the target pests (except for the case of monkeys) within the intervention land plots in contrast to the control sites, at which a notable damage was observed. For the case of monkeys, it was observed that the effective period of the method lasted for only 5-7 days. In conclusion, it can be recommended that the “Ashta Garunda Chakraya” could be utilized as an eco-friendly solution for repelling of macro herbivorous pests (except for the arboreal species such as monkeys) in agricultural activities to minimize the impact of pests.