They say crows have great memory and never forget those who have
wronged them, and the story of an Indian tractor driver who claims to
have been constantly attacked by crows ever since they saw him pick up
some of their hatchlings, a year and a half ago.
Mohanan, a tractor driver from Ambalavayal, a town in India’s Kerala
state, has been carrying a stick and an umbrella to work every day, for
over a year. It’s not that he fears getting attacked by dogs or that he
hates rain, but that he needs to defend himself against the crows that
always attack him whenever he approaches a bus station where he once
picked up two crow hatchlings from under his tractor and placed them on
the side of the road. As Mohan recalls, the following day, he and his
colleagues found a small puppy covered in tar and washed it clean with
kerosene, and he assumes the crow must have seen him and confused the
puppy for the hatchlings that he had handled the previous day. The crows
have been on his case ever since, harassing and attacking him whenever
they see him.
The tractor driver recently told Indian newspaper Mathrubhumi
that crows nesting in the trees around the bus station he picked those
hatchlings up at always attack him when he drives by. He said that he
even tried staying away from that place for over a week, but it didn’t
matter, the crows were waiting for him when he came back. Now he just
uses his umbrella and stick for protection, and throws the crows some
food to distract them.
“I give a share from my lunch to the crows. Once they finish eating
it, they will start attacking me again,” Mohanan laughingly said, adding
that changing his clothes and trying to disguise himself didn’t work
either.
The crows’ animosity toward Mohanan has become well known among the
people of Ambalavayal, and while most find it funny, the tractor driver
says the birds can be pretty ruthless, so much so in fact that a few
months ago they ripped the canopy of his new umbrella during an attack.
Interestingly, we featured a similar story just last month. Shiva Kewat, a worker from Madhya Pradesh, claims that he has been attacked by a murder of crows for the last three years, ever since he picked up a crow chick on the street. I guess they really are vengeful creatures.
