For months now, farmers from a cluster of villages in Suri, Birbhum district, have borne the brunt of horseplay.

At least 300 farmers of Balijuri, Meje, Banskathi and other neighbouring villages on Monday wrote to the local police station and the block development officer that they had been run roughshod by a group of seven stray horses.

The rampage of the horses since June has compelled farmers to put a halt to winter cultivation. Officials must capture and tame the horses, the letter said.

The villagers insisted that the authorities identify the owners of those horses which had been munching on their crops and running amok on their farms. The horses seem to have been “let loose” by their owners to save on feeding expenses during the lockdown, the residents unanimously say.

“This is an agriculturally rich area, and animals have no business wreaking havoc here, especially when they have private owners. Panchayat authorities need to step in immediately or there will neither be any winter produce nor income for this area,” said Binaj Mondal, a farmer from Meje.

Mondal added that the number of farmers ready to stop winter cultivation was around 1,000, far more than the 300 who wrote to the police and the BDO about the horses.

“These horses were first spotted grazing by a pond near Balijuri. We did not pay them heed initially but within a few days, when they finished all the grass by the pond, they were all over our crop fields wreaking havoc,” said farmer Bappa Das Baishnav, who owns and cultivates 3.5 acres of land.

“Now we are on the verge of giving up on winter cultivation altogether, because aside from eating our paddy, onions and other vegetables, these horses seem intent on trampling the fields, playing strange games among themselves and even encroaching on our stockpile areas at night,” he added.

The farmer added that over 1,000 acres of cultivable land had been affected by all the horsing around. The horses seemed to go without sleep at nights as well.

“We hear them whinnying and thumping their hooves late into the night. It is strange. One time I saw a horse scratching its back against a crop cluster as a dog would do,” added another farmer.

Asked, panchayat officials said they had begun a search for the horses’ rightful owners but had been unsuccessful so far.

“We don’t know from where the animals came. We have visited at least a dozen neighbouring villages to search for the owners, but to no avail,” said Munmun Ghosh, chief of the Balijuri gram panchayat.

Block officials claimed they had already contacted forest officials, requesting them to tame the animals, but were told that horses didn’t belong to the “wild” animal category.

“Foresters refused the responsibility point blank,” said Aniruddha Roy, the block development officer of Dubrajpur. “Now, we have requested the police to help us in this regard. Villagers can’t catch running horses. We have also asked the local gram panchayat to campaign in adjoining villages in case anyone is interested in taking the animals away,” Roy added.

A police officer in Dubrajpur police station added that they did get the mass petition from villagers on the taming the horses. “But what can we do with those animals even if we capture them?” he asked quizzically.