Farmers in Vellore want wild boars to be gunned down to protect their crops from being damaged. They are demanding the Forest Department to take steps immediately to get the State government’s nod to cull the wild animal.
A number of farmers have been raising the problems of wild boars causing tremendous damage to crops, especially groundnut, at the monthly farmers’ grievance redressal meeting. During the meeting held on Friday, the farmers once again raised the issue and cited the Central government’s nod to a few States to cull specific wild animals that were causing menace. Recently, the Centre approved culling of nilgai and wild boar in Bihar and rhesus monkey in Himachal Pradesh.
“The Centre had given the notification to cull nuisance-creating wild animals in States such as Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Even the Madras High Court has allowed shooting of wild boars by a forest department officer in the rank of a ranger. The Tamil Nadu government should implement these orders,” R. Subash, a farmer said.
Huge loss
Ekambaram, another farmer said, many farmers have faced huge losses after wild boars damaged crops. “In Ambur forest range alone, there could be at least 5,000 wild boars. We raise crops after so much difficulty, but end up facing loss for our one year of hard work due to these wild animals. The compensation given by the Forest department is very low,” he said.
While Raghupathy, another farmer, said farmers in Vellore have been raising this issue for the last 10 years. “But still, no solution has been arrived at. We are unable to raise crops such as groundnut. Is the government not worried about the welfare of farmers here?” he questioned.
The farmers wanted the government to take up measures to shoot down the wild boars.
Many of them wondered if the State government had failed to represent the magnitude of the issue to the Centre.
However, Umesh Suman, district forest officer, said steps are being taken to address the issue. “The census of wild boars was carried out. We also put forward these details during a review meeting. The final decision from the government is yet to come,” he said.
Sugar mill arrears
A farmer said the cooperative sugar mills were yet to pay the pending arrears to sugarcane growers for 2015-2016 and 2016-2017.
An official replied that all 16 cooperative sugar mills in the State were yet to pay the pending amount to farmers due to paucity of funds. For 2015, Rs. 350 per tonne was pending as payment.
“We informed the Labour Minister about this issue during a review meeting held on June 13. The Minister has assured to take appropriate action. The funds are likely to be provided by the end of June or July,” the official said.
A. C. Venkatesan, another farmer, urged Collector R. Nanthagopal to take steps to remove encroachments from all water bodies in the district and desilt them so that water could be stored when it rained.
Many farmers wanted the State government to waive all loans – both taken from cooperative and nationalised banks - for farmers. They also wanted the Thenpennnai-Palar link project to be implemented soon.
“In Ambur forest range alone, there could be at least 5,000 wild boars, which attact crops”
