Hunting wild boars, boring business for farmers

KOCHI: It has been almost a year since the special law permitting to hunt down wild boars, under the supervision of Forest officials, has been passed in the select districts of Kerala. But the law seems to have had few takers.  Reason? The confusion among officials and farmers regarding the law. Outcome? No wild boar culled under the Act. The special law which has a validity of one year was passed in Wayanad, Malappuram, Palakkad, Idukki, and Pathanamthitta districts invoking the provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The law aims to bring down illegal hunting of the animal and mitigate the damage the boars may cause to the crops.Surprisingly no boar has been culled under this provision, says the data with the Wildlife Department. “The farmers rarely come up with the request to hunt down the animal. Even it is an uphill task for us to spot the wild boar. The law also prescribes several criteria for shooting the boar; for instance shooting of pregnant ones is not permitted. Also there aren’t enough shooters to do the job for us,” Forest officials said.  The Act prescribes that the ‘Chief Wildlife Warden or the authorised officer may, if he is satisfied that any wild animal specified in Schedule 2, Schedule 3, or Schedule 4, has become dangerous to human life or to property or is so disabled or diseased as to be beyond recovery, by order in writing and stating the reasons therefore, permit any person to hunt such animal or group of animals in a specified area or cause such animal or group of animals in that specified area to be hunted’.According to Varghese James, a farmer and social activist in Nedumgandam in Idukki district, there are several procedures to get the wild boar culled making the law impractical. “The wild boars cause heavy damage to crops every year. The new law remains unused because we have to complete several procedures to get the wild boar culled. Firstly, we have to submit an application to the forest officials. Then they will verify whether the animal is causing any kind of damage to our crops. Again they would come to spot the exact animal causing the damage. They would check whether the animal is pregnant or underaged, Varghese said.