Wild boar invasion pushes farmers to breaking point

What keeps farmers in Coimbatore and its neighbouring districts awake at night? It's not just the usual worries of weather and market prices, but the looming threat of wild animals, especially elephants and boars.

"Every other day, I lose crops worth up to Rs 150," said ‘Manpuzhu' (Earthworm) Ravi, an organic farmer in Uppupallam, Sathyamangalam. For over a decade, he has been waging a silent war against wild boars on his four-acre farm.

In Coimbatore and Sathyamangalam, farmers cultivate various crops such as bananas, mangoes, tomatoes, brinjals, and turmeric. Millets like sorghum and ragi, along with pulses such as black gram and green gram, round out the crop diversity. TBut there is a serious threat to their livelihoods lurking in the form of wild boars. These animals can adapt to diverse habitats, breed quickly, and feed on just about anything, making them well-suited to areas with human activity. The farmers struggle to protect their crops, with the state forest department's measures often falling short. The wild boars wreak havoc on the fields, damaging every stage of the crops from seedlings to maturity.

"Unlike elephants, boars cause seemingly minor damage. For example, they just knock down a few trees. Even getting a paltry compensation of Rs 500 for those few trees is a hassle. So, many farmers simply don't report boar attacks. But the losses add up significantly over time,” said Dr Jayaprakash CR, an expert in human-animal conflict and a certified organic farmer in Thadagam.

Perfect storm

Farms are easy to attack and combined with deforestation and fewer natural predators like tigers, leopards, panthers, wild dogs, and jackals, allowed the wild boar population to grow quickly. According to globalforestwatch.org, Coimbatore lost 262 hectares of natural forest from 2010 to 2023.

Kerala’s boar population grew by more than 40% in the last 15 years, from 40,963 in 1993 to 58,000 in 2019​​.  Since 2022, culling efforts have been enforced with proper protocol to ensure the humane treatment of the boars while not disrupting their role in the ecosystem. Determining the exact wild boar population in Tamil Nadu is challenging due to the lack of a comprehensive statewide census.

The consequences of boar attacks go beyond mere crop damage. “The fear they create is palpable. Farmer unions demand vermin status for wild boars, Centre highlights their role in forest habitat and workers are afraid to even come to the fields," said an office bearer of the Tamilaga Vivasayigal Sangam's (Tamil Nadu Farmer’s Union) G Ranganathan. 

Ideally, a buffer zone of 100 to 200 metres from the forest boundary should remain undeveloped to allow wildlife to move freely and mitigate human-wildlife conflicts. “However, this practice is often ignored, with cultivation extending right up to the forest edge, exacerbating conflicts and disrupting wildlife movements,” said N Sadiq Ali, founder of Wildlife and Nature Conservation Trust (WNCT) in Nilgiris.

Culling vs conservation

In Kerala, the government encourages local bodies to cull wild boars that threaten crops or human life. In March, the government decided to designate the conflict as a state-specific disaster. As a result, the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) will also be involved in implementing various remedial actions.

Farmer organisations across Tamil Nadu have also urged their state government to classify the animals as vermin, allowing for their culling. In December 2023, farmers in Tirunelveli asked the government to remove wild boars from the Wildlife Protection Act's 1972 Scheduled List of protected animals. As per the latest announcement, TN’s forest minister M Mathiventhan has officially declared that the government will hunt wild boars that damage agricultural crops beyond 5 km from reserve forests. 

Conservationists, though not entirely against culling, are sceptical of misuse. "A significant fear is that without strict oversight, such measures could lead to indiscriminate killing, affecting not only the targeted wild boar populations but other wildlife species as well," said Ali. 

Kalidasan, founder of Osai, a Coimbatore-based environmental trust, emphasises the wild boar's ecological importance: "It is an essential link in the food chain by providing prey for predators such as leopards and tigers. Its habit of digging the ground fosters plant growth, and its scavenging behaviour helps with nutrient recycling. So, a drastic action like culling must be carried out with careful consideration.” 

The state government formed a 19-member committee in November 2023. Headed by Chief Wildlife Warden Srinivas R Reddy, the committee included forest officials, scientists, and farmers. It conducted field visits to assess the situation and recommend mitigation strategies. Antony Rubin, one of the committee's members, said it found no concrete evidence of culling in Kerala reducing the wild boar population in the long run. "They might disappear for a day or two due to fear, but they eventually return. The compensation system is broken. Lack of transparency in promised payments and municipalities not paying further complicate the situation. To make matters worse, regulations against culling young and lactating animals are being ignored," he added.

Containing the wild boar population requires a multi-pronged approach. "While the forest department initially considered capture and relocation, the logistics have made it unviable," said Kalidasan. "We need to conduct a thorough survey to map wild boar populations and crop damage outside forested areas before making policy decisions. We must also identify and clear their hiding places, such as overgrown areas near streams which are often choked by invasive plants. This could discourage them from encroaching on farmland,” he added.

Ali suggests that camera traps, typically used in forests, could be deployed on forest edges to track the movement of wild boars. This data, he reckons, would help target interventions to reduce conflict and protect animals and communities.

The state government's committee also favours a multifaceted approach, according to Rubin. Apart from identifying 'hot zones' of the wild boar population, he believes studying the impact of feral pigs (which seem to result from interbreeding between domestic and wild pigs), examining the insurance schemes for farmer compensations, and exploring bio-repellent options is crucial for resolving the conflict. "We have suggested all these mitigation measures. And the final framework of the committee will be released soon," said Ali.

"As an organic farmer, I understand biodiversity," said ‘Manpuzhu’ Ravi. “The wild boars aren't at fault. Human encroachment—like resorts on forest land—disregards the environment,” he added. 

To address the growing crisis, GV Sudarshan, a third-generation organic farmer from Gobichettipalayam, Erode, has developed a liquid bio-repellent. Validated by the Forest College and Research Institute of Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, this bio-repellent, according to Sudarshan, can also increase yields and improve soil health. "We've conducted tests in various locations against elephants, wild boars, and even bats," he said, "Once these tests proved successful, we started collaborating with Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) through the Indian Council of Agricultural Research district research stations for wider application." 

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