Hyderabad: Scores of farmers across southern India were duped allegedly by a Chennai-based company “Donkey Palace” which offered high margins in the donkey milk business.
The issue is affecting farmers across Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. According to victims, who held a press conference at Somajiguda Press Club on Friday, the company initially sold donkeys to farmers at a premium price, promising to buy their donkey milk at a lucrative rate of Rs 1,600 per litre.
While the company reportedly upheld this agreement for about three months, it is alleged they later failed to continue purchasing the milk, leaving farmers stranded with significant investments and losses.
Farmers have expressed their grievances, claiming they were lured into the scheme under false promises. They requested AP chief minister Chandrababu Naidu and Telangana CM Revanth Reddy to intervene and provide relief to the affected individuals.
According to the victims, Donkey Palace entrepreneur Ulaganathan Babu, along with his team members Giri Sundar, Balaji, Sonika Reddy and Dr Ramesh have taken Rs 5 lakh as security deposit from each farmer, with some of the farmers depositing as much as Rs 30 lakh for purchasing as many as 30 donkeys under a buy-back agreement.
“Babu had promised that the operational expenditure including wages for labour, construction of sheds and expenditure for veterinary care would be borne by Donkey Palace. We initially thought that due to challenges in business initially they were not able to bear the costs, but now they have totally duped us,” a victimised woman informed the media.
The victims said that Babu gave them cheques ranging between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 70 lakh for compensating them, but all those cheques bounced. The victims said that the GST deductions and FSSAI license under the business agreements were all found to be fake.
Interestingly, Babu’s success story could still be found on the website of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), where it has been stated that U Babu has established India’s largest donkey farm, managing approximately 5,000 donkeys through a franchise model with more than 75 franchisee farms.
“He has also established ‘The Donkey Palace,’ One Health – One Solution – A Conservation, Recreation, and Awareness Center, which aims to promote donkeys’ value and contribution to society and the economy,” the success story reads.
The Donkey Palace’s products include fresh donkey milk, donkey milk powder, donkey dung used as fertilizer, and distilled donkey urine for Siddha medicines and the pharma industry, according to ICAR.
Babu’s team has participated in the ‘Entrepreneurship Development Program’ at ICAR-National Research Centre on Equines, Hisar, where they gained technical knowledge about donkeys and donkey farming. In addition, ICAR – NRCE facilitated the elite Poitu donkeys to Babu for establishing the Donkey Palace.
Babu’s victims alleged that he was being protected by astrong political influence, the reason why when they went to complain about his fraudulent business at a police station in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, the police just chose to ignore them.
According to the victims, there were around 400 people from four states duped by Babu by around Rs 100 crore.
“We have invested our life long savings in this business. We have no other option but to die by suicide,” a victim of Donkey Palace told Siasat.com.
