WILD BOAR ATTACK ON AGRICULTURE LAND OF PULPPATTA PANCHAYATH

 WILD BOAR ATTACK ON AGRICULTURE LAND OF PULPPATTA   

                                                 PANCHAYATH

Nimisha NK

BEd Natural science

Semester IV

St. Joseph College of Teacher Education for Women, Ernakulam

nimishanitha@gmail.com

 

Pulpatta is a village in Eranad Taluk, Malappuram district in the state of Kerala, India.  It is located 7 km away from Manjeri. Now the village is highly suffering due to wild boar attack.

Wild animal attacks are a special challenge for farmers throughout the world. Animals such as deer, wild pigs, rabbits, elephants, monkeys, and many others may cause serious damage to crops. They can damage the plants by feeding on plant parts or simply by running over the field and trampling over the crop fields.

 The Wild Boar is an extremely adaptable animal as it is found in a variety of different habitats, eats almost anything that will fit in its mouth and not only runs fast, but also swims well too. They are also commonly known as European Wild Pigs, Hogs or simply Boars.

The wild boar is one of the utmost broadly spread ungulates and large mammals pest in the biosphere owing to its great multiplicative speed, adaptableness, and resourceful nourishing . In several dwellings, wild boars are deliberated a pest species for the reason that these harm to foodstuff crops as well as spread infections to livestock and human , and undesirably influence on native flora and fauna

   

                                                 Figure1: showing picture of wild bore

In India, the increase in population of wild pig with no increase in forest area poses danger to the farmers of both small scale subsistence agriculture and international agribusiness. Wild animals may easily cause significant yield losses and provoke additional financial problems.. This leads to human-wild pig conflict, the top most human-wildlife conflicts in India.      

The incidence of plants or crops injury by wild boars has been outstretched theatrically in the previous sometimes, suggesting an upsurge in social conflicts, expenses for advantage and a danger to natural environment.

Crops like rubber, paddy, banana and vegetables are mainly cultivated in Pulppatta region. Boars mainly attack on night. In the morning farmers often see a plowed fields . They destroy the agricultural crops by crushing or eating of plants. The edges of the land will have all been destroyed.  Likewise, these may harm to crops while wallowing and rooting which injury to plant roots, and form holes and grooves that harm farm equipment .

Farmwes are not the only  ones affected. Common people are not able to put any plants in their land. Boars will destroy all the cocounts and aracanuts that fell on the ground. People are unable to use even the crops in their own yard.

                   
   

                     Figure 2 : showing foot of the tree was destroyed by the pig digging                                   

Wild boars harshly influence trees and timber resources in many ways like disturbance of planted seedlings, girdling and rubbing of matured trees, chewing and rooting of sideway roots of fully-fledged trees, and tusking or scent marking with the tusk glands that injuries to tree bark. This is  badly affecting the rubber cultivation in the village a lot. Most attacks occurred within the species native range, and specifically in rural areas of the village.

Most happened under non-hunting circumstances and appeared to be unprovoked. Wounded animals were the chief cause of these attacks in hunting situations. The animals involved were typically solitary, male and large in size. The fate of the wild pigs involved in these attacks varied depending upon the circumstances, how-ever, most escaped uninjured. Most human victims were adult males traveling on foot and alone.

The most frequent outcome for these victims was physical contact/mauling. The severity of resulting injuries ranged from minor to fatal. Most of the mauled victims had injuries to only one part of their bodies, with legs/feet being the most frequent body part injured. Injuries were primarily in the form of lacerations and punctures.

Injuries resulting from wild boar attacks generally occur in the lower extremities and lower-abdomen region. This pattern is related to the height of the animal. Following the initial assault the animal generally turns and attacks repeatedly. This results in victims frequently having more than one injury site. Fatalities were typically due to blood loss.

                      Figure 3: Roads in Pulppatta which are regularly attacked by boars

Many parts of the village are crowded with plants and trees on both sides of the road. In many areas are look like forest. Even in the evening there are places where children are not safe go alone in such places even adults cannot go at night due to the attack of pigs. They cause traffic accidents at night.

Increasing deforestation has led to lack of availability of food for wild boars forcing them to enter human settlements near forested areas thereby damaging agricultural crops. Cultivation of vegetables such as tomatoes, cabbages, etc., instead of floriculture attracts the wild pig to maintain their feeding status. Injuries to crops are usually initiated as a result of ungulates attack.

 The wild boar is an omnivore. Damage due to wild boar in everlasting grassland is far more numerous and intense than destruction to yearly crops,  injury is seasonally scattered with respect to nature of crop, loss is dispersed spatially in a non-uniform way.

 

Figure 4: showing yam plant destroyed by boar in homestead

Crop damage by wildlife is a frequent source of human–wildlife conflict. Understanding which factors increase the risk of damage is crucial to the development of effective management strategies. Any mast that does germinate and begins growth is often consumed by boars shortly thereafter.

A rapid increase in wildlife population and the pressure on the fringe areas due to cultivation of crops along the forest borders have been identified as two major factors leading to frequent straying of wild animals into human habitation.   The wild boars are forced to stray into human habitations owing to changes taking place in the forest eco system fuelled by climate change and excessive human intervention. Wild pigs can be significant predators of eggs and newly hatched young of ground-nesting birds , small mammals etc .They have become harmful not only to humans and crops but also to domesticated animals of the village.

                 

Figure 5:  Areas destroyed by pig burrowing in the homestead

Agricultural fences, natural repellants, biophysical barriers, electronic repellents were some strategies used by the farmers to protect crops from bore attack. Wild animal crop protection requires a particularly cautious approach. In other words, while utilizing  crop production, every farmer should be aware and take into consideration the fact that animals are living beings and need to be protected from any potential suffering. Government should take necessary initiatives for preventing boar attack in the village other wise this will badly affect the common people and the farmers