Three Indian farmers in the dry western state of Gujarat have been arrested for selling illegal alcohol after their own buffaloes got drunk on the hooch, police said.

One of the men called a local vet after their buffaloes started to “act strangely and their mouths started frothing”, local police official Dilipsinh Baldev told AFP.

The vet then inspected the water trough that the animals had been drinking from and “observed a strange smell and found the water to be coloured”.

This, it turned out, was because the men had hidden bottles of moonshine in the trough and some of them had broken, contaminating the water.

The vet then informed the police, who raided the farm on Monday and recovered 100 bottles of alcohol worth Rs32,000.

The three farmers were arrested.

In Gujarat — Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state — making, buying, selling or transporting alcohol is outlawed, punishable by hefty fines and even prison sentences.