The stringent provisions included in the State government’s latest order on killing wild boars attacking crops have put many farmers who face the wild animal attack in a fix. As per the order issued on March 3, farmers should have a licensed gun and they should adhere to a number of other legal conditions.
The main concern raised by the farmers living on the fringes of the forest is that only very few have licensed guns. Those who earlier owned guns have surrendered them before the authorities because of hurdles in renewing the licence every year. The demand to make the process easy is yet to be considered by the authorities.
A farmer from Koodaranhi said even the licensed gun holders too would not be able to meet the new conditions. Only those who have made their entry into the Divisional Forest Officers’ approval panel would be able to use the weapon in a particular area, he added.
Farmers’ association leaders said the formation of such a panel too was not likely to take place because of the limited number of licensed gun holders. They also pointed out that licensed gun holders might not be even available in a particular area where farmers face the crisis.
According to official figures, the total number of licensed gun holders in Kozhikode district is 176. The highest number of them,125, is from Kozhikode taluk, where there is no wild animal menace. Only 56 licensed gun holders were in the other three taluks in the district.
A plantain cultivator from Chakkittappara panchayat said the government should have allowed farmers to make use of other possible traps and native methods to kill wild boars straying into the fields. He complained that the order had no such practical options to help the struggling farmers other than just introducing a law for the sake of doing it with much complications.
Meanwhile, Forest Department officials said the new law was passed by the government by preventing all the possibilities of misuse. “Taking into account the farmers’ response, some favourable amendments can be done in the law. But there will not be any amendment that will hamper the existing laws meant to conserve wildlife,” they added.
