Farmers under the banner of Joint Farmer Protection Council laid siege to the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO)’s office at Nenmara in Palakkad district on Friday in protest against the death of an elderly rubber estate employee in a wild boar attack.
Mani Mathai, a tapper from Olippara, was killed in the animal attack at a rubber plantation at Paithala Nerchappara near the Mangalam Dam on Thursday.
The protestors carried the coffin of Mathai and demanded that forest laws be implemented only in forests. Ramya Haridas, MP, inaugurated the protest. Joint Farmer Protection Council chairman K.A. Mohammed Kutty presided over.
The Forest Department on Friday released ₹10,000 as immediate relief to the family of Mathai. DFO Aneesh C.P. said the department would help the family receive a compensation of up to ₹10
lakh.
Boar population up
Forest officials termed the incident an unfortunate case of an accident, and said attack by wild boars was not on the increase as projected by certain vested interests. However, they agreed that there was an increase in the wild boar population.
Meanwhile, culling of wild boars continued across the State, with the Forest Department-designated shooters killing several wild pigs every week. “The culling process is on. In fact, we killed about 200 wild boars in the last two months in Palakkad,” said Mr. Aneesh.
Ayiloor panchayat president S. Vignesh, councillor S. Vinod, Mangalam Dam Forana Church vicar Fr. Cheriyan Anjilimoottil, District Congress Committee president A. Thankappan, Joint Farmer Protection Council convener C.B. Scaria, its north zone president Charlie Mathew, Catholic Congress Diocese general secretary Jijo Arakkal, Boby Bastin, C.C. Sunil, Sumesh Achuthan, K.G. Eldo, Fr. Jino Purameethil, K.A. Abbas, and Santhosh Arakkal spoke during the inauguration of the protest earlier.
