Amid the growing incidents of man-animal conflict, a significant increase has been reported in the culling of wild boars in the forest fringe areas of Kerala after the local self-government bodies were roped in for the exercise along with the Forest department.

The State government on Friday increased the honorarium for shooters killing a wild boar to ₹1,500 and a financial assistance of ₹2,000 for disposing of the carcass.

According to the data available with the Forest department, as many as 2,719 pigs were culled by the Forest department until 28 May, 2022, with Palakkad and Malappuram accounting for the highest number of pigs killed—741 and 633 respectively.

Later, the local self-government institutions were authorised to carry out the culling operation. Since then, 2,372 wild pigs that entered human habitations were culled, taking the total number of pigs culled to date to 5,091. Though a total of 281 panchayats and six municipalities, including Ottappalam, Pattambi, Mannarkkad, Andoor, Koothuparamba and Ettumanur and one Corporation are identified as high-conflict zones, Palakkad and Malappuram led the table in the culling of pigs with 1,471 and 1,300, respectively.

The State government had conditionally begun shooting the wild pigs that repeatedly cause damage to crops on an experimental basis for a period of one year in 2011, which was later extended till 2015. After a brief gap, the government issued revised guidelines and procedures to shoot the wild pigs for a period of six months in 2020, which was then extended until 2022. After the local bodies came into the picture, the culling process has received significant momentum.

List of shooters

Trained and licensed marksmen with licensed firearms are engaged for culling wild pigs and they have to ensure that the culling is done in a safe and controlled manner. The Forest department has prepared a list of willing shooters having valid gun licences and prepared the empanelled lists range-wise and shared them with panchayats. The empanelled shooters include licensed individuals, farmers, Rifle Club members, retired officers, and ex-military personnel. Now, with the government raising the honorarium for shooters, the State is hopeful of minimising the conflict between humans and wild pigs in the State.

According to Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Kirti Vardhan Singh, mitigating the human-wildlife conflicts is primarily the responsibility of the State government concerned. Section 11(1)(b) of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 empowers the State Chief Wild Life Warden or the authorised officer to permit any person to hunt any wild animal listed in Schedule II appended to the Act, including wild pigs that have become dangerous to human life or property, he said in reply to a question in Parliament recently.