Mass culling of crop-raiding wild boar populations, which are located away from forest boundaries, will begin after Onam holidays.
The intensive culling operations, the first of its kind in the State, aims to reduce the population considerably in two months. The Divisional Forest Officers of the State have identified around 300 hot spots, which are located away from forest boundaries, where isolated populations have established themselves.
Each surviving population will have upto 30 individuals. The carcass of the silenced ones would be burnt using kerosene to prevent the consumption of its meat, said Forest officials.
Farmers had been complaining about the crop loss caused by the wild boar population and the efforts of the State government to get the species declared as a vermin did not succeed. Recently, the Kerala High Court had asked the Forest Department to permit the killing of the species in three districts based on the petition of 12 people.
The Forest Department planned to seek the support of sharp shooters of the Rifle Clubs for the culling programme. The plans were afoot to bring the menace under control in two months, said Bennichan Thomas, Chief Wildlife Warden, Kerala.
The animals, which had established in places far away from the forest boundaries, were of no ecological and conservation value. The population of the species, which were prolific breeders, had gone up exponentially high in the absence of natural predators in these locations and was posing serious threat to food security and farming, said Mr. Thomas.
In Kollam Forest Division, as many as 76 hotspots had been identified. Culling was the only practical solution for controlling the population, said Sanjayan Kumar, Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF), Southern Circle, Kollam.
The presence of the marauding animals had been reported as far as 30km away from the forest boundaries in the division, said D.K. Vinod Kumar, CCF in-charge of northern Circle, Kannur, where 74 hot spots were identified.
On an average, there could be around 300 individuals in a forest division. The elimination would begin from habitats located away from forest areas. The ones living in the forest areas would be left untouched. The recent High Court order saw around 20 individuals being killed, the forest officials said.
