With skulls and living mice, TN farmers continue protest at Jantar Mantar

/ Farmers from Tamil Nadu stage a protest at Jantar Mantar by holding living mice in their mouths to demonstrate that they will have to feed on them if the government fails to declare drought relief packages and waiver loans for the farmers from the state. (Saumya Khandelwal/HT PHOTO) / Farmers from Tamil Nadu continue their protest against the government. (Saumya Khandelwal/HT PHOTO) / A farmer from Tamil Nadu pretends to a eat a living mice while staging a protest at Jantar Mantar to demonstrate that they will have to feed on them if the government fails to declare drought relief packages and waiver loans for the farmers from the state. (Saumya Khandelwal/HT PHOTO) / Farmers from Tamil Nadu who had been protesting at Jantar Mantar, wearing green dhotis and carrying skulls of allegedly other farmers who have committed suicide in the face of what has been reportedly called one of the worst droughts in the states, have temporarily called off their movement. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO) / The drought in Tamil Nadu, which was officially declared on January 10, 2017, is worse in over 140 years. The National Human Rights Commission also said the issue of farmer suicide in drought-hit Tamil Nadu is a matter of concern. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO) / The protesters say around 400 farmers have killed themselves over the past six months and claim that the skulls, apparently dug out of family graves, are of some of the farmers who committed suicide. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO) / Tamil Nadu farmers have been protesting with skulls of dead farmers at Delhi’s iconic Jantar Mantar since March 14. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO) / Half-naked farmers, who have come from Thanjavur and Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu’s of Cauvery belt, are on hunger strike with skulls of dead farmers. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO) / Doctor from AIIMS did a check-up of the farmers protesting at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO) / The burden of debt compounded by alleged drought like conditions, which ruined both their summer and winter crops, forcing many to commit suicide. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO) / In a unique kind of protest, the farmers, all dressed in green lungis covered with leaves, are staging demonstration with dug-up skulls of fellow farmers who have committed suicide due to the drought. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO) / A farmer showing the letter of Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Radha Mohan Singh to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during the protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO)