Wild boar issue: Tirunelveli farmers threaten to boycott Parliamentary election

Farmers protest in Tirunelveli demanding action against crop-raiding wild boar herds, threatening to boycott elections if ignored.

The farmers’ prolonged appeal to the State government to take steps to hunt down the crop-raiding wild boar herds snowballed into a protest on Tuesday as the agriculturists from various parts of the district laid siege to the District Forest Office at NGO Colony here to press their prime demand.

 After the Forest Department officials held talks with the farmers, they staged a demonstration in front of the District Forest Office and submitted a petition to DFO Murugan.  “We were invited to meet the DFO to air our grievances. Since our prime grievance of the wild boar invasion into farm lands remains unheard for decades, we decided to lay siege to the office. As the officials requested us to give up the agitation and attend the meeting, we just submitted the petition to Mr. Murugan and left without attending the meeting,” said Kaanaarpatti D. Abraham, Tirunelveli district secretary of the Coordination Committee of Tamil Nadu All Farmers’ Associations, who led the protest.

 Mr. Abraham said that though the crop damage caused by the wild boars and deer had crossed tolerable limits, the forest department was not taking any steps to check this menace. Even as the neighbouring Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telengana States had obtained permission from the Union government for removing wild boar from the list of scheduled protected wild animals so as to hunt them down, the Tamil Nadu government is not interested in protecting the interests of farmers by getting similar permission.  “We have been making this appeal in every farmers’ grievance redress meeting on not less than 50 occasions, with meetings with the DFO, and the weekly grievance day meeting at the Collectorate on Mondays. But all were in vain. If this apathy continues, we will leave our lands fallow,” Mr. Abraham said.

 He said the forest department which promised to supply them a chemical, Neelbo, to repel the wild boars from entering the farms has notsupplied it.  “If we tie jute soaked in neelbo solution around the farm, it will repel the wild boars from entering the farm lands. The forest department, which refuses to hunt down these invading wild animals, is not even ready to supply this chemical to the farmers,” Mr. Abraham said.

The farmers and their family members would boycott the upcoming Parliamentary elections if the Tamil Nadu government chose to ignore this demand, he said.

 “When political leaders, especially the Ministers come here for electioneering, we will stage road roko and cripple their election campaign,” the farmers said.