Crop raids by wild animals are causing huge losses to sugar cane farmers of Anchunadu Valley. Farmers say that herds of wild boars pose a major threat, besides elephants and gaurs. Peacocks and deer arriving from Tamil Nadu forests also destroy crops.
B. Manikandan, a sugar cane farmer at Nachivayal, told The Hindu that wild boars came back in the night even if they were chased away. He said it was difficult to notice the damage caused by the boars immediately.
“It is not possible to protect the crops from wild boars as their presence cannot be easily noticed. Even if chased away, they come back in the night. There is no point in keeping vigil in the night as they are close by throughout the year,” he said.
Damaged
Mr. Manikandan has 20 acres of land under sugar cane cultivation and nearly two acres has been destroyed by wild boars.
He said that the number of wild boars had increased and unlike wild elephants, they would hide and destroy crops during night.
He said he had stopped cultivating vegetables because of the increased threat from wild boars.
In Champakadu area, peacocks are the new threat. Farmers said that they damaged the crops and raid the sugar cane in the early period of growth.
New threat
“Peacock was not a threat earlier and now their presence is posing a threat to vegetable cultivation,” said a farmer at Champakkad.
Wild elephant attack is grave in Pius Nagar, Anakkalpatti, Vettukadu and Colony areas. Murukesan of Missionvayal said while wild elephants destroyed large areas in a short while, wild boars destroyed crops in frequent raids. He said that the instances of wild gaurs coming to the farms had also increased. Wild animals had destroyed cultivation in half acres of his farm.
The farmers said that the fences erected for protecting sandalwood trees at Marayur were damaged and thus wild animals easily entered the cultivated areas. They said that there was a spurt in the number of wild boars and many were seen with the young ones.
Paltry compensation
S. Chandran, a local leader, said that farmers were reluctant to apply for compensation saying that it was useless. Several who had given application in the past had not received any compensation so far, he said and whatever compensation received never matched the losses. Farmers should be given some decent amount as compensation, he said.
Published - September 16, 2019 11:06 pm IST
