Flaying the ‘cold approach’ of the Forest department in addressing the wild animal menace and the delay in processing compensation, farmers from five upland villages will take out a march to the Divisional Forest Office in Kozhikode on Monday.
Activists of Kerala Karshaka Sanghom will lead the march.
Karshaka Sanghom leaders say protest marches will be organised in all districts. They point out that the measures claimed to be adopted by the Forest department to tackle wild animal encroachments failed to address farmers’ concerns.
According to Karshaka Sanghom leaders V. Viswan and Babu Parassery, farmers are in a situation to leave their land or keep it uncultivated because of the increasing wild animal attacks. In Kozhikode district, Chakkittappara is the worst-hit village, they add.
Farmers who have expressed solidarity with the protest say the right to assess the loss in cases of wild animal encroachments should be handed over to a separate committee led by Revenue and Agriculture department officials. The practice of assessing the loss by Forest department officers themselves should be ended to protect farmers’ interests, they demand.
The partly completed electric fencing works and filled trenches along the forest borders add to farmers’ woes. Many proposals earlier approved by the Forest department to prevent wild animal encroachment are remaining unimplemented.
Farmers’ organisations like We Farm and Kisan Janata point out that the proposals to use dismantled railway tracks for fencing works and the planting of thorny palms along vulnerable areas are remaining non-starters because of the apathy of Forest officers. The only relief is the permission recently granted by the court to some of the farmers to gun down wild boars that enter cultivated areas, they add.
