Minister for crackdown on use of crude bombs to hunt wild boar in villages bordering forests in Karnataka

Calling upon officials for effective surveillance to prevent such practices, Minister for Forests, Ecology and Environment Eshwar Khandre said that there were multiple incidents of domestic animals and other herbivores damaging their jaws and dying eventually due to hunger. He said there have been cases of elephant calves chewing the crude bombs and dying.

Taking note of the use of low-intensity crude bombs to hunt boar in villages bordering forests in Karnataka, Minister for Forests, Ecology and Environment Eshwar Khandre directed officials to crack down on the practice.

At a review meeting of the Forest Department at Kollegal in Chamarajanagar district on April 23, the Minister said that other domestic and wild animals were dying after chewing the crude bombs, mistaking them to be fodder.

Calling upon officials for effective surveillance to prevent such practices, Mr. Khandre said that there were multiple incidents of domestic animals and other herbivores damaging their jaws and dying eventually due to hunger. He said there have been cases of elephant calves chewing the crude bombs and dying.

‘’The government is taking this matter seriously. Legal action should be initiated against those engaged in such practices,” the Minister said.

The use of crude bombs in villages bordering wildlife sanctuaries, and even territorial forests, is not new.

The practice is to camouflage crude explosives in fodder. When wild boar touch the fodder, they are killed by the explosive, or injured, thus preventing them from damaging agricultural crops.

Though targeted at wild boar, other unsuspecting animals, including elephants and cattle, have met with a slow and excruciating death, as the crude explosive goes off in their mouth, ripping off the jaw.