Farmers in Tirunelveli, Tenkasi welcome move to protect crops from wild boars

The Wild Boar Crop Damage Prevention Scheme introduced in the Tamil Nadu Government’s agriculture Budget may bring much-needed relief to the farmers of Tirunelveli and Tenkasi districts, who are suffering significant loss every season with the crop-raiding wild boars causing extensive damage to the standing crops that include paddy, vegetables, millets, groundnut, grams etc.

Even though wild boars are seen in large number in the areas close to the Western Ghats, these animals have settled down in forests in the plains like Alangulam, Manur, Kadayam, Cheranmahadevi etc. Even the farmers of Kayathar, Kovilpatti and Vilaaththikulam taluks say that the wild boars have entered even their areas to damage millets and grams, which are located 70 to 90 Km away from the Western Ghats while the forest department deny it saying that the animals being spotted in these places are common pigs.