Rearing Emu: After a flying start, it is a free fall in Maharashtra

Gorde, who had ventured into the business of Emu rearing in 2003, says he lost substantial money when the market for Emu eggs or Emu meat disappeared suddenly.

Introduced in Maharashtra in 2002, Emu farming was advertised as a foolproof method for farmers to generate assured income. The birds, which originated in Australia, were apparently first introduced in Andhra Pradesh in 1996 after which Maharashtra and other states caught up.

Emu’s rise
According to the state’s Animal Husbandry department, Emu farming peaked during 2010-11 with the state reporting around 100-150 such farms. Each farm on an average had around 20-30 pairs of birds who were supposed to lay 20-40 eggs during the October-March period. Other than eggs which reportedly sold for Rs 1,500 a piece, the farmers were also sold on the idea of selling Emu meat and oil extracted from the bird’s carcass, all of which apparently had a huge demand in the international market.

Districts of Pune, Ratnagiri, Satara and Sangli saw numerous farms being set up and many farmers abandoning their traditional cultivation to rear the flightless birds. Back in 2010-13, the tall-necked birds roaming around freely in caged open spaces had became a common sight along the Pune-Mumbai Expressway. In fact, Emu meat and omelettes made from its eggs had started featuring on the menu cards of the various rest areas and dhabas which line the Pune-Mumbai Expressway and the Old Pune-Mumbai Highway. It was estimated that the state was home to more than 10,000 Emus at one time.

The fall
Six years down the line, the birds have all but disappeared not only from the menu cards, but also from the landscape of the state.
Travellers on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway as well as the Old Pune-Mumbai Highway can still see the empty enclosures once home to these birds. Of the more than 10,000 birds, just a handful now survive. Farmers like Gorde either culled the birds or left them in the jungles once the financial viability of the project vanished.

Parameshwar Thite, a farmer from Rajgurunagar area of Pune who was rearing 70 such birds, says the sudden disappearance of the assured market led to the ultimate collapse of the Emu bubble. “We were told eggs and chicks would be brought back from us but it stopped suddenly from 2010. I had invested Rs 3-4 lakh in Emu farming from 2008 onwards but with no returns in sight, I had to stop it by 2010,” he says. Rather than culling the birds, Thite decided to abandon them in jungles near Rajgurunagar. “There was no other way for me,” he says.

Asked about the fate of birds, Thite is clueless. “I have no idea what happened to them. Maybe, wild animals attacked them or villagers killed them.”

Both Thite and Gorde hail from Khed taluka of Pune district, where 30-35 farmers had opted for Emu rearing. Almost all of them have shut down the business.

The rescue
The last lot Emus is now kept at two animal rescue centres run by the Pune Chapter of People for Animals(PFA). Manoj Oswal, animal welfare officer and managing trustee of the PFA, says their animal rescue helpline was inundated with calls from desperate farmers who wanted to give away their birds. “It first started with a single call from a farmer who wanted to give away his birds as he no longer could afford to keep them. We decided to rescue the bird. Soon, calls poured in from across the state and we were at our wits’ end on how to deal with them,” he says.

Oswal says the abandoned Emus had very slim chances of survival with chances of falling prey to wild animals and stray dogs. “We observed that dogs attacked the birds but did not eat their flesh. Also, in the jungles, these birds attacked some of the smaller animals,” he says.

Rescuing Emus presented its own set of logistical challenges. “These are extremely powerful birds and if they decide they do not like you, they never change their mind. When we went to rescue them, most of these birds were starved, but that did nothing much to improve their tempers. Emus can deliver a powerful kick with their legs and we had to be careful while rescuing them,” says Oswal.

According to Oswal, though they were getting calls from Ratnagiri, Raigad, Satara, Pune and Sangli, there were other problems in rescuing them. “Dogs, cats and cattle have their own lovers, but Emus were seen as a foreign bird in the Indian context. There was friction in our committee also over the rescue. One of our key trustees left over the decision to rescue these birds,” he says.

Oswal says they received 2,000 such calls from farmers in 2013. “However, we decided to stop the operation after rescuing 200 such birds. We simply did not have any resources for keeping the birds.”

At present, the rescued birds are housed at two animal care centres run at the villages of Holkarwadi(Haveli taluka around 15 km from Pune) and Mapoli (Ambegaon taluka around 81 km from Pune). The rescued birds were also difficult to maintain as they were raised on a different diet. “We have successfully weaned them away from that and now they have normal feed with fruits given at regular intervals. Most of these birds are around 6-7 years old and are doing good,” Oswal says.

Last year, Emus at Mapoli contracted an unknown viral infection, which killed almost half of them. “We sent sample to all the leading laboratories but no one was able to identify it” Oswal says.

At the Holkarwadi centre, the tall necked flightless birds are seen at peace inside their enclosure amongst the other rescued animals. With their normal life span of 30-40 years, these birds have a long normal life ahead.

Asked if they still receive calls for rescue of Emus, Oswal replies in negative. “We do get occasional calls, but these are from individuals rather than farmers who have problems keeping the birds. The last such call we got was around six months back,” he says.

Bhadresh Mehta, one of the pioneers of the trade, says the decline in Emu rearing had more to do with bad business than any thing else.

Mehta, who headed the Emu Farmers’ Association, says the farmers failed to invest more in by-products but were easily attracted by quick returns on chicks and eggs. “By-products like cosmetics and oil was to be the real money-maker for this business, but farmers failed to invest in that. At one time, there were more than 40,000 Emus across the country,” he says.