Kendrapara: Demand to declare wild boars as vermin has sparked off a debate between the villagers living inside the Bhitarkanika National Park in Kendrapara district and environmentalists. People living inside Bhitarkanika have been demanding to declare wild boars as vermin while environmentalists are opposing their demand. The villagers are living in constant fear as wild boars are destroying their crops, properties and also killing or critically injuring people during encounters. Fear of wild boar starts haunting the villagers when it is time to harvest crops. Sources said that the state government could work towards declaring wild boars as vermin. The state government could write a letter to the Centre in this regard under Section-62 of the Wildlife Protection Act-1972, the sources added.
The animals placed in schedule 1 and 2 of the Act can be slaughtered in the slaughterhouses within a particular period. The animal can also be poached once the restriction on its conservation is lifted. However, the environmentalists are opposing such steps. A farmer Tapan Kumar Mandal of Mahakalapara said wild boars have been destroying crops of the locals. The animals stray into their farmlands and also attack them in the absence of fences on the edge of the jungle near the village. As a result, local farmers are facing crop loss and risk to their lives. They raise the crops by borrowing from various sources but in the end, fail to repay the loans due to crop loss.
Some people are also rendered disabled in the attacks and then live a life of drudgery and obscurity. Mandal said that the wild boar population needs to be controlled to save them from the menace. He demanded that the state government should slacken rules under the Wildlife Conservation Act in the area and save them from wild boar menace. Suresh Kumar Sarkar, a resident of Rajnagar, said that wild boar attacks have grown alarmingly in Bhitarkanika National Park area. The Rajnagar forest division claims that there are less than 2,000 wild boars in Bhitarkanika but the actual figure is much more than what is being claimed, he said. Two persons have been killed and over 50 injured critically in wild boar attacks during the last two years, he said.
At least five persons in Ishwarpur village sustained critical injuries in wild boar attack and have now become physically disabled. The lives and properties of the villagers are not secure as the wild boars stray into farmlands and human habitats all year round. Wild boar has been declared as vermin in Bihar and Uttarakhand in 2016 and the menace has reduced drastically in these two states ever since. However, environmentalists are opposed to taking any such move against the wild boars. Environmentalist-cum-lecturer Khitish Kumar Singh alleged that the menace of poachers is more concerning than that of the wild boars.
Another environmentalist Srikant Das of Dangamal also supported his claim. They claimed that the Forest personnel have arrested more than 40 poachers during last two years. The poachers are killing herbivores like deer, wild boars and not even sparing the marine creatures. The Bhitarkanika National Park has no large animal like tiger, leopard, bear or elephants and the wild boar is only construed as a wild animal.
The presence of wild boar discourages encroachment of forest land. They fear that declaring the wild boar as vermin will lead to sharp increase in poaching and destruction of the green cover. When contacted, Rajnagar DFO Sudarshan Gopinath Yadav said various preventive measures are being taken to save people from the attacks of protected animals. Fences have been erected in the village end and Forest officials are also conducting regular patrolling. However, if any person gets killed or rendered critical in a wild boar attack then they are being paid compensation as per government norms. Awareness programmes are also being conducted to save people from wild boar menace. However, people also attack these animals and kill them often, he added.