THOOTHUKUDI: Demanding the state government to permit civic bodies to control the menace of wild pigs spoiling crops, over 1,000 farmers headed by MDMK headquarters secretary Durai Vaiko have petitioned district collector Dr K Senthil Raj. "Wild pigs have become a major threat to agriculture in Vilathikulam, Pudur, Kovilpatti, and Kayathar where the animal has ravaged short-term crops like black gram, green gram, and maize cultivated in several thousand acres. The state government should assess the damages caused by the wild pigs, whose population is on the rise," read the petition, which suggested the forest department form a committee at the village level to control its menace.
He also demanded the union government shift the wild pigs from the third chapter of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972, to the fifth chapter containing the vermin list, so that prior permission would not be necessary to quell its population. Noting that the union government had placed wild pigs of Uttarakhand and Bihar under the vermin list for one year in 2016, he said the same government turned down the demand of the Kerala government. "The government in Kerala formed a village-level committee to control its population as a result", he said.