CHENNAI: While the Tamil Nadu forest department has procured weapons and begun the preparations for hunting wild pigs, conservationists warn that the move might disturb the predator-prey ratio and cause more adverse impacts.
A new study by the Advanced Institute for Wildlife Conservation (AIWC) has also suggested exploring non-lethal methods to manage the escalating human-wild pig conflict before resorting to hunting. The report, detailing 3,331 conflict incidents, reveals that wild pigs are a growing challenge, with 94.4% (3,117) of cases tied to crop damage, 0.39% (13) to human deaths, 4.9% (161) to injuries, 0.1% (4) to livestock losses, and 0.2% (6) to property damage. However, the AIWC warns that hunting could disrupt ecosystems and urges sustainable alternatives.
The study shows wild pigs target crops like groundnut (23%) and paddy (19.9%), with moderate damage to sugarcane (10%), maize (9.5%), tapioca (7.82%), banana (4.6%), and corn (6%). Analyzing 50 forest divisions, 40 reported conflicts, with Dharmapuri leading at 20.8%, followed by Thiruvallur (16.7%). Moderate incidents occurred in KMTR Ambasamudram (8.3%), Tiruvannamalai (7.4%), and Tiruppur (5.1%), while Trichy (0.6%) and Kanyakumari (0.4%) saw the least. December marked the peak conflict month, followed by November and September, with April recording the fewest cases.
Tamil Nadu’s response includes the Wild Pig Hunting Guidelines, zoning areas near forests: Zone-A (up to 1 km) bans hunting, Zone-B (1-3 km) requires capture and release, and Zone-C (beyond 3 km) allows hunting. A special farmers-wildlife conflict resolution committee with officials and experts was constituted to study the impact of wild animals such as elephants and wild pigs on agricultural crop raiding in Tamil Nadu and to find a solution and make recommendations.
The committee in its report recommended hunting beyond 5 km from forest boundary, but the State government in its own wisdom reduced it to 3 km.
In the research document, the AIWC opined the most efficient strategy to reduce wild pig abundance involves reducing supplementary anthropogenic food resources and selectively removing juvenile and yearling wild pigs. It proposes non-lethal mitigation—like habitat restoration, crop diversification, and eco-friendly fencing—backed by incentive programmes.
Dr J Pandiyan, associate professor, Department of Zoology and Wildlife Biology, said biofencing was one of the potential mitigation measures for farmers who are facing intensive conflicts with wildlife. "About 45 non-browsing plants have been identified and details will be published in a book shortly. The government can supply these plants free of cost to farmers for cultivation. Species like Dendrocnide sinuata (Anaisoriyan), Acacia concinna (Sigaikkai), Allium cepa (Vengayam), Allium sativam (Vellai poondu), Citrus lemon and Aloe vera (Katrazhai) are known to yield good results."
Coimbatore-based environmentalist Mac Mohan said the government is succumbing to pressure without conducting any scientific assessment. "There is no predator-prey ratio study, wild pig population assessment is not done, and we don't even have leopard population data. Removal of wild pigs, an important prey base especially for leopards, in large numbers will push big cats into human areas, which can lead to fatalities. Let the government compensate the poor farmers adequately. Kerala has failed to contain the wild pig conflict problem, although rampant culling was carried out."
A senior forest official said adequate precautions will be taken before giving hunting permission in a specific division. As per the G.O., local committees will be constituted which will inspect the conflict area for assessing crop damages and recommend for either the release of compensation to farmers or recommend for hunting to jurisdictional forest ranger officers. Permission to shoot the wild pigs will be granted only in most problematic divisions.
