NILAMBUR: Government efforts to save agricultural land as well as lives of the people on the forest fringes of Nilambur from wild animals have not begun showing results. The measures taken towards curbing clashes between human beings and animals in the area have not been successful as they all seemed illogical.
Wild boars are appearing commonly as predators. And the government’s order to shoot them down is one of the dubious proposals made by the government, said reports. The government was prompted to relax the rules on “using weapons against wild animals” as incidents of attacks had been continous. There were occasions in which a large number of people in forest areas had been attacked by the boars, and the loss of crops due to this had also been huge.
But just relaxing the rule will neither meet the need nor save their lives and crops from danger. Most of the people in the area don’t possess guns to shoot the animals. Just five of them in the area have licensed guns, and they are in Kurulai panchayat, quite a bit away from the forest fringes.
According to the farmers, the boars make their raids in the night, and are unpredictable too. It would be impossible to fetch the gun holders at a crucial time such as a predator attack, although the Forest Department has allowed to shoot at them, the farmers said.
Forest officials do not consider the experiences of farmers while creating policies and projects. Lack of thinking and research as well as first-hand experience, on top, are spoiling most of the projects, said farmer K Jose. Projects to control the animal attacks included fencing in the forest as well as around agricultural lands and making trenches. But all of them failed.
Fencing was a creative idea, but it did not work well and lasted. The best way would be to build a rock wall along the forest border. Even an elephant wouldn’t dare to bring down a wall which is stronger than itself, said M Abdul Salam, a retired forest ranger and a successful farmer at Nilambur.
According to the forest officials, there are more limitations than openings as far as measures are concerned. However, the Union government is considering a few amendments to the Indian Forest Act, 1927, which would also address the issue, they said.
To deal with the situation, the state government also seems to be taking a few steps. But to yield tangible results they have to be case-specific and based on geographic fitness, said wildlife expert and Kerala Forest Research Institute director-in-charge, P S Easa.
However, in spite of a general opinion that a joint effort between the forest officials and the farmers are more advisable, the forest officials are yet to emerge with a useful formula, said reports.