COIMBATORE: Farmers continue to grieve the forest department's inaction about culling wild boars, after releasing a GO to stop wild boars from intruding into farmlands and damaging agricultural crops.
They expressed apprehension that the situation is similar to what happened in 2021, when a GO was released by the state government for a one-year period to control wild boars, but did not take any action.
"Wild boar population has increased exponentially and intrusions into agricultural land has caused severe economic loss to farmers. After persistent demands by farmers, the state government released the GO in 2021, but it did not yield any result as no boars were culled before the order expired. Likewise, the government released a GO in January and about three months have passed, but without improvement," said T Venugopal, president of Tamilaga Vivasayigal Sangam, Coimbatore.
Esan Murugasamy, founder of Tamilaga Vivasayigal Pathukappu Sangam said, "The present norm described in the GO is not suited for controlling wild boars as it cannot be shot within three kilometres of the forest boundary. We have raised that this would not yield any positive result for farmers. After the announcement, there has been no progress."
When contacted, N Jayaraj, divisional forest officer in Coimbatore said, "To initiate the order, a committee was formed at the local level in the district. The committee consists of representatives from the concerned panchayat, farmers and range officials. We are going to form a district level committee next. After this, measures will be implemented as per the committee's decision."