“ Yahan to party chal rahi hain (there is a party on here),” 23-year-old Pawan Chauhan says with a laugh when we ask about the music blaring from an empty concrete shed in the middle of his family’s 15-acre farmland.

Yes, it’s a perpetual party, 24x7, in the fields at Bhaktawarpur, on the outskirts of Delhi, to keep away herds of nilgai (the Indian blue antelope) from destroying the standing crops. “We just switch on the FM channel and allow it to blare through this powerful loudspeaker. The nilgai feels there is human presence on the fields and stays away,” explains the young farmer.

This is a unique solution to a serious problem facing farmers in many states and has even put the BJP government at the Centre in a spot. In December last year, the Rajasthan government requested Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar for a solution to end the large-scale destruction of crops by herds of nilgai. The ‘gai’ in the nilgai nomenclature has, for obvious ideological reasons, caused a dragging of feet on allowing culling of the animal.

With necessity the mother of invention, the wheat and vegetable growers of northwest Delhi tehsil have put their radios to good use.

However, this is certainly not the first time that radio has come to the rescue. Just last month the Forest Department and the Wildlife Conservation Society of Himachal Pradesh issued an advisory for those who may encounter a leopard crossing their path in a forested area or deserted stretch of land. Though an old problem in Shimla district, the frequency of such incidents has increased over the years. “Don’t panic, just play some music,” was their advice, encouraging people to keep a transistor handy or turn on the FM in their mobile phone. Music apparently keeps the leopard at bay.

Don’t forget the crucial role broadcasts played during the 2013 Uttarakhand floods. An All India Radio reporter recollects how, after listening to a news broadcast, the locals of Gaurigaon came to the rescue of a large number of pilgrims stranded on their way to Kedarnath. Telecommunication lines had snapped and AIR was the only source of information, which directed villagers to the forests where the pilgrims had taken refuge.

Referring to the 2004* tsunami that devastated Andaman and Nicobar Islands, she relates how AIR’s Port Blair station relayed messages to relatives over the radio. During the 2008 Bihar floods, messages broadcast over radio greatly aided in the search for missing people.

The power of the broadcast medium is well-known. However, when it goes beyond the news and the entertainment to actively relay, rescue, save and support it turns the corner to take on a much larger role, be it to rein in the nilgai or locate a disaster victim.

(* This article has been corrected for factual error)

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