The greatest menace to paddy cultivation is the rogue elephant. At times the herds of elephants also pose a big threat Through noise in the day and through fire in the night the elephants are scared away. In many instances Yeravas have been killed in the process by the elephants.

Not all the families possess paddy fields. The paddy grown is used by the family and is never sold. The hay is used as feed to the buffalos.

The plantation activities involve picking, weeding and trimming of shade plants. The plantation owners have, in addition to coffee plantations, paddy fields. The Yeravas who work under plantation owners are supposed to work in both the places. The contract of work with the plantation owner is for one year. The daily wages and other terms and conditions of work are fixed and agreed to by both sides in the beginning of the year itself. Once an Yerava accepts the terms he does not leave the plantation in the middle. It is important to note that the wages are paid only for the days of work and not for holidays. If work could be given by the owner, the Yerava is not supposed to go elsewhere and work. He can go out elsewhere for work, only when the owner could not engage him that day.

The male worker in a Yerava family is paid @ Rs. 6.00 a day, the female worker (a Rs. 5.00 and the boy-girl of 12-14 year age @ Rs. 4.00 a day in the plantations. For a family of husband, wife, mother and two working children, he gets a loan of one pare (10 seer) of paddy; for each pare the owner charges Rs. 8.00. The owner calculates the total number of people who have worked in the week and the number of days that they have worked and pays the wages by deducting the advance taken from him either in cash or in kind.

In the beginning of the year, before joining the plantation self, the Yerava takes a loan of Rs. 100—200. The money is deducted from his weekly payments towards this loan. No interest is charged. Once in an year the annual accounts are settled. If he has cleared everything he can go to any other plantation or remain in the old place. Since most of them fail to pay back these loans, either they take fresh advance from the home owner and pay the old loan and continue to work or go to another planter who agrees to pay more wages and more advance money, and get the advance from him to clear the old planter's loan. After clearing all the loans he would join the lew plantation. This helps the Yeravas not to stick to one estate but switch from one estate to another in search of more wages and more advance money.

The days on which there are special occasions in the homes of the planter, Yeravas are fed by the planter. Also, the left overs of the food are offered to Yeravas by their masters.