Lok Sabha polls | Farmers in Erode’s Talavadi Hills threaten to boycott election

Residents in Erode district near forest boundaries threaten election boycott due to increasing human-wild animal conflicts, seeking permanent solutions.

Expressing concern over the frequent human-wild animal conflicts in villages located near forest boundaries in Talavadi Hills, Erode district and the inadequate action taken so far by the government to resolve the issue, residents of a few villages have threatened to boycott the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, and have hoisted black flags atop their houses.

There are over 20 villages located along the boundary of forest ranges in Talavadi and Jerahalli, falling under the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) in the hills. There have been multiple instances of wild elephants entering habitations and damaging standing crops and also of killing farmers guarding their crops, in addition to leopards and tigers attacking both humans and cattle. 

Farmers claim that conflicts have increased over the past few years, particularly during summer, as wild animals enter villages in search of food. Though compensation is given to the victim’s family after each incident, people here say they live in constant fear and want a permanent solution to solve this problem.

A section of residents of Iggalur, Neithalapuram and Seshan Nagar, where conflicts have been frequent, hoisted black flags atop their houses and threatened to boycott the election. These areas come under the Bhavanisagar Assembly constituency and under The Nilgiris Parliamentary constituency. 

People of these villages want the existing elephant-proof-trenches (EPTs) to be strengthened, and new EPTs to be dug to prevent animals from venturing out of the forest. They also wanted rail barricades to be installed at the forest borders.

Residents here say they have submitted many petitions to officials and elected representatives but claimed no action has been taken so far. They say they are being forced to boycott the elections to draw attention to their problems as all their other efforts have failed.