DHARMAPURI: Farmers in Dharmapuri urged the forest department to plant bamboo shoots in the fringes of the forest to protect crops from wild boars.
According to sources, wild boars enter farmlands from the forest and feed on paddy, millets and other crops, causing huge losses to farmers. Hence, farmers said bamboo would act as a deterrent to the boars. R Kasturi, a farmer in Kottapatti, told TNIE, “It is extremely difficult to ward off boars which enter farmlands. They dig out almost all the crops by the roots and in most cases, there is no possibility of recovery. Every day we just watch as little by little our farmlands are consumed. Moreover, the boars are aggressive too and we have no means to chase them away,” she said.
Another farmer, R Manikandan from Morappur, said, “The compensation we get for acre damage is only `20,000 to `25,000. We could earn tenfold more money if our crops mature. But due to the boar menace, this is proving difficult and year after year their population is increasing.”
K Ramamoorthi of Krishnapuram said, “In Pappireddipatti near Manjavadi, there are large fields of bamboo trees in the forest and we have seen boars unable to pass through the dense foliage. So, we had filed a petition with the forest department to plant bamboo shoots in the fringes of the forest area to prevent the boars from entering the farms.”
District Forest Officer KV Appala Naidu was unavailable for comment. Sources from the department said, “We will take steps to ensure this. Only representatives from one of two areas have made this request.”