The wild boar challenge: To kill or not to kill

The move to empower local bodies to cull wild boars is hailed by farmers, though quite a few others are sceptical

Walking through the cardamom plants at night, Scaria Alexander Njavallil is aware of an intimidating presence in his 600- acre plantation at Nedumkandam in Idukki. Every few yards, the earth has been gouged out and the cardamom plants freshly dishevelled with their roots lying scattered on the ground. At the base of the large trees that stand in between are the long-raking scratches where a sounder of wild boars have burrowed the topsoil, looking for something beneath.

Mr. Njavallil admits that it can be a little unnerving to suddenly come upon a wild boar. “They are twice the size of a dog and can charge hard while also retreating fast to secret parts of the plantation,’‘ he says. 

A licensed shooter, he obtained a special permission from the Forest Range Office at Kumily to shoot wild boars a year ago and has been patrolling the plantation on most nights except on rainy days. But to no avail. 

A recent decision by the State government to permit hunting of wild boars using entrapment, however, has come as a major relief. Ahead of the monsoon, he is rushing with a plan to lay traps on the routes through which these nomadic, nocturnal animals are entering the location. 

For farmers on the forest fringes, the problem is not only the wild boars’ raid for food but that their population is increasing exponentially. The encounters between them and these animals are numerous of late. But more and more, they are drawn deeper into human settlements -- even up to Alappuzha which has no forests. 

 “Of all the larger animals, none reproduces as quickly and abundantly as the wild boar. It’s an infestation machine,” points out Fr. Sebastian Kochupurakkal, general convener of the High Range Samrakshana Samithi. 

This very fact, according to him, makes the hunting of wild boars too expensive and too hard to be worthwhile. “Even if you transfer the power to shoot the animal to local bodies, the shortage of licensed shooters will come in the way of its effective implementation. The government, on its part, is not willing to issue new gun licences either,’‘ he adds.