08 Jul 2012 Kerala Commentary
Kerala farmers' human settlements have sleepless nights due to carnivores.
P.S.Remesh Chandran.
Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum.
The most common confrontation between man and animals from the wild is pigs roaming the land and destroying the crops of poor farmers. It indeed is a problem in almost all Indian states with forest areas but this problem is acute in the very small state of Kerala. In larger states, considering the vastness of the land and the circumference of pigs’ roaming area, only people living near to forest areas alone would be affected. But in Kerala since the state is small and almost all villages are not too far from forest boundaries, the tribal and village people have become quite helpless in protecting their crops. Tapioca, plantain, vegetables, paddy and rubber are the main earning crops of the people of Kerala. Unfortunately these are also the most favourite crops the pigs like to devour or uproot. Certainly these people cannot leave their lands and go to other places for living. Nor can they abandon the ages-old occupation of farming. If someone sees in the morning the ploughing the pigs did in the yester night, his heart would be broken. Neither the forest department nor the revenue department sanctions any compensation or relief to these hapless farmers of Kerala. In the past, this problem was not as severe as it is today as the farmers had several techniques to harness the attacking pigs. Building watch huts in the middle of the fields and creating noise and din by banging vessels or cracking firearms when pigs come from the forest area was enough to drive them away. It was a very dangerous business because man-attacking pigs from the wild are the most vicious in the ferocity and thoroughness of attacks. A farmer attacked by wild pigs was a very horrible sight to see. Now if it is done, the nearby residents would file complaint against sound pollution. Then farmers began to construct special fences with firearms hanging from them which when the pig touches the fence would fall down and explode, driving the pigs away. This practice was obstructed by the police since it involved firearms. Then they began to pass electricity through their barbed wire fences which frequently began to invite accidents and human deaths also. Doing this is now impossible due to intervention by the police and the electricity distribution authorities. When farmers began to shoot pigs, as is expected of them, the Kerala Forest Department began to prosecute these farmers. What advice has the Kerala revenue department and the forest department has to give these farmers except leave their lands and go to live in other places? It was foolish of the government to include pigs in the protected animals’ list. It is actually the farmers of Kerala who are to be included in this protected animals’ list. Those who eat them say that pigs are very delicious to eat. Everyone in Kerala also knows that the number of pigs in the Kerala forests is more than enough not to be eaten, or to be protected.