A committee formed by the Tamil Nadu government to provide solutions for crop damage caused by wild animals recently visited Kerala to assess their wild boar culling practice.
Headed by the Chief Wildlife Warden, a panel comprising farmers, forest officials, an Agriculture Department official and wildlife experts on December 7 visited Ottapalam in Palakkad district of Kerala, which had empowered local bodies to cull wild boars using a licensed shooter or by entrapment. The move had raised eyebrows among animal welfare activists.
In Tamil Nadu, farmers from Coimbatore, Erode, Krishnagiri and a few other districts had requested the State government to declare wild boars as vermin and give nod to cull them. Farmer organisations in Tirunelveli requested the government to remove wild boars from the Scheduled List of protected animals of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.
