The farmlands face a threat from smaller animals like wild boars and hedgehogs
.gif "Permit us to shoot at wild boars, say Kovai farmers")
Farmers petition district collector to seek permit to gun down wild boars that have been damaging crops
cultivated in their fields.(Photo: DC/File)
Coimbatore: It's not just jumbos which are raiding the crops in Coimbatore. The farmlands face a threat from smaller animals like wild boars and hedgehogs. As boars frequently ravage the millet, banana and maize crops in Coimbatore outskirts, the District Farmers' Association has come up with a bizarre plea. They petitioned the District Collector seeking permission to shoot at wild boars and hedgehogs that have been causing damages to their crops and causing huge losses to the farmers.
The farmers handed over the petition to the Collector Archana Patnaik at the Farmers’ Redressal Froum that was held on Friday. The petition claimed wild boar menace was intense in Annur, Thondamuthur and Sirumugai and all that is being cultivated is damaged by the animals, irrespective of the crop. Plantains that were cultivated in large acres of land were recently destroyed by the animals and this has resulted in huge losses, the farmers rued.
Thondamuthur has acres of coconut farms and the farmers are unable to pick the mature nuts that fall on the ground because the animals are always wandering around the fields. The hedgehogs damage the fallen nuts and render them useless, they lamented. They showed the damaged coconuts to the Collector and the other officials present during the meeting.
The petition noted that the Kerala government has permitted the farmers to use guns with rubber pellets to keep such animals from the field and hence sought the Collector to permit those in Coimbatore, to use such guns so that their crops could be safeguarded.
They urged the forest department to take measures to ensure that these animals do not stray into the fields and areas of human habitation. Elephants, wild boars and hedgehogs were damaging crops to a tune of several lakhs but the compensation that is being given is a maximum of Rs 25,000. The government should take increase the compensation amount to the farmers, said the association president, N.Palanisamy..
He also urged the district administration to remove encroachments along the Noyyal and Kaushika rivers as they were destroying the water resources thus affecting agriculture in the area. He said that several farmers have cultivated coconuts along these areas and those who have lost crop due to drought should be duly compensated.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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