BY TC News Desk
Agartala, 6th December 2025: Farmers living along the India–Bangladesh international border are facing an unprecedented agricultural crisis. In several villages adjoining the border fence—particularly in South Tripura’s Sonamura subdivision—high-powered LED floodlights installed over the past year have caused severe damage to paddy fields, leaving cultivators in deep despair.
According to numerous marginal and sharecroppers whose lands lie just across the first line of fencing on the Indian side, their paddy plants have grown unnaturally tall and thin, resembling reeds rather than mature grain-bearing crops. Farmers report that although the plants looked large, they eventually dried up and failed to produce grain. Many believe the powerful lights, positioned roughly 30 feet high and kept on throughout the night, disrupted the natural growth cycle of the crops.
Adding to their troubles, authorities have recently laid a second line of fencing wire flat on the ground within five meters of the border. Farmers and agricultural labourers say this low-lying wire is almost invisible while working in the fields, resulting in repeated injuries. Several workers have suffered cuts so severe that they bled profusely.
This situation has affected nearly all border villages under Kathalia Block—from Uttar and Uttar Paharpur Gram Panchayats in the north to Bhabanipur in the south. Farmers say that earlier, low-power lights did not cause such problems. Only after the introduction of high-capacity LED floodlights last year did the crisis begin, severely impacting this year’s Aman paddy season.
On Saturday, several farmers—including Rahim Mia of Nirvoypur, Shailen Sarkar, Haradhan Dey, and Narayan Majumder—met local reporters and expressed their frustration. They said they had invested significant sums of money and countless hours of labour into cultivating their fields, only to receive almost no yield due to the lighting.
Their repeated appeals to the Border Security Force (BSF) reportedly brought no relief. According to the farmers, BSF personnel told them the lighting arrangement was beyond their control. Efforts to seek help from local elected representatives—block panchayat members and the area MLA—have also yielded little more than verbal assurances.
