The State government will exert pressure on the Union government for including the villages in Ranni that have been left out from a list of hotspots of wild pig attacks as part of declaring the animal as vermin, Forest Minister A.K. Sasindran has said.
Responding to a notice by Ranni legislator Pramod Narayan in the Assembly on Wednesday, the Minister said the State government had already asked the Parliament members from the State and the Union government to take a serious note of the issue. “Reductions were made from the original list as per the directions of the Central government and many villages that experience the menace of wild pigs are yet to be added in this list. We will ask to include more villages on this list,’‘ noted the Minister.
According to him, ₹22 crore had been allotted for addressing the human-wildlife conflict in this year's Budget. Of this, installation of solar fencing in 1,000 kilometres and construction of elephant trenches in a distance of 200 kilometres had been completed. This was in addition to the ₹8 crore paid as compensation to the farmers, he said.
