Onion avalanches must be prevented: If not armoured vans, at least steel container trucks are needed to safeguard them

While in more normal times it may be perfectly fine to transport onions just like any other ordinary vegetable — bulging precariously in gunny sacks along the sides and tops of trucks — the current crisis should have merited extra caution in transit. Vegetable-stuffed sacks giving way would not usually attract much attention, but an avalanche of onions these days is akin to a downpour of doubloons, only far more precious and useful than mere gold coins.

So, the farmer whose allium booty spilt out from jute bags and scattered all over the highway near Rajkot in Gujarat last week must be castigated for his negligence. After all, there have been reports of onion godowns being looted, so security for the coveted bulbs must be paramount. To save tears later, if not armoured vans, at least sturdy steel-articulated trucks must be used henceforth during onion crises.

It may be recalled that during a similar onion avalanche in Maharashtra in 2018, allium purloiners had even ignored the injured driver in their greed to grab as many bulbs as they could before the police arrived. The locals who went down on all fours to gather the windfall of free onions this year cannot be likened to rioters who run away with electronics goods snatched from stores, but their doing so amid roaring highway traffic indicates an increasingly alarming recklessness.