COIMBATORE: Tamil Nadu forest department, with the help of a private company, has developed a trap cage that will be operated with a remote exclusively to capture wild boars that are damaging crops on farmlands and frequenting residential areas.
The cage that can capture up to eight to 10 wild boars was developed based on the direction and idea from Chief Conservator of Forests and Field Director of Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) D Venkatesh to mitigate the wild boar intrusion in farmlands and residential areas in the forest boundaries under the Coimbatore Forest Division.
After capturing them in the trap cage, the animals will be shifted into a transfer cage, which has also been developed by the team. They will be taken and kept in vehicles for easy transportation, and then the wild pigs will be released inside the forest.
A cage consists of separate panels, and they can be fixed to the ground. They have been designed for a total coverage of 700 square feet with the shutter. Using the remote, the cage will close the shutter once the wild boars enter it. Based on the recommendation of a committee consisting of the Panchayat President or Municipality Commissioner, Village Administrative Officer (VAO), and the section forester, the wild boars will be captured and relocated.
A forest department official said, "We can operate the cage using a remote upto 300 meters. Both the trapping cage and transporting cage have been designed without harming the wild boars. We have already done such an operation in Gudalur Kavundampalayam, where we have captured seven wild boars using a camouflage setup after getting permission from Chief Conservator of Forests D Venkatesh and DFO N Jayaraj based on the recommendation of a committee and released them at Eluthukkal Pudur near Athikkadavu.
"A herd consisting of seven wild boars had been repeatedly entering the residential area in and around Gandhinagar of Gudalur Kavundampalayam. We have waited for a month to capture the entire herd. Initially, we had fixed the cages near a hotel and then shifted to a dumping yard," the official added.
A few forest range officials from Paramakudi, Vellore, and Udumalai have requested the Coimbatore team to make such traps for capturing wild boars in their areas.
Sources said that both the trap cage and transport cages, along with wires and other materials, have been readied at a cost of Rs 3.80 lakh. DFO Jayaraj said that they are planning to develop similar cages with remote and transport cage in other forest forest ranges wherever there were wild boar intrusion.