Decision to entrust culling to local bodies raises questions

Wild boar population significantly fell from 60,940 in 2002 to 48,034 in 2011

Wild boar management has been a vexed issue in Kerala for decades. The government move to empower Panchayati Raj institutions with the authority to cull animals that wander into human-inhabited areas does not seem to offer a long-lasting solution to the conundrum. 

The assumed growth in population of the prolific breeders and the increasing human activity along forest fringes have contributed to an upward trend in conflicts in recent years. A significant rise in instances of crop damage and property loss due to wild boar menace has created unrest among local communities that predominantly rely on agriculture for sustenance. The number of such cases has risen from 1,250 during 2019-20 to 1,898 a year later, according to official statistics. 

While the decision to vest local bodies with the power to annihilate wild boars may have brought cheer to large sections, some believe the decision could do more harm than good.

“The wild boar population significantly fell from 60,940 in 2002 to 48,034 during the next wildlife census held in 2011. While no worthwhile attempt has been made to enumerate the population in recent times, the decision to relax the restrictions on culling wild boars could pave the way for their extinction. Such a scenario could result in big cats including tigers wandering into human inhabited areas in search of food,” M.N. Jayachandran, former member of the Kerala State Animal Welfare Board, says. 

He accuses the State government of flouting a 14-point management guideline issued by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change last year to deal with human-wildlife conflicts. The government ought to exhaust such provisions including ensuring people’s participation in managing conflicts and adopting early warning systems before going for “extreme measures”. 

Rubbishing such concerns, the government has maintained that it adhered to the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 while delegating the powers vested with the Chief Wildlife Warden to local body leaders who have been appointed honorary wildlife wardens. A senior forest officer cited a similar decision that had been taken by the Telangana government last year to cull wild pigs in view of the widespread destruction caused to standing crops. 

While the decision to let the local bodies decide on shooting down wild boars is feared by various quarters to result in their indiscriminate killing, concerns are also rife that the permission could be misused with poachers entering unguarded forests to hunt these animals.