AP and Telangana farmers urge foresters to declare wild boar as vermin

HYDERABAD: Farmers wrote to principal chief Conservators of forest of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh , urging them to declare wild boar as a vermin culling it.
In their letter, Consortium of Indian Farmers Association (CIFA) alleged that the wild boar is causing farmers distress.
CIFA chief advisor and founder P Chengal Reddy wrote in his letter, "farmers are incurring huge crop losses and are unable to grow profitable crops like groundnuts, fruits or sweet potato due to wild board menace, In addition, wild boars are also attacking farmers causing serious injuries.Farmers are harassed by the forest department for taking steps to protect their farms. Animals die in the snares are because the foresters are not discharging their duties. Farmers have all right to safety of crops. They are bearing the brunt of the wild boar menace which is spiralling out of control. This is also provoking state farmers to resort to other methods."
CIFA said that their study found that wild boars issue has a negative impact small and marginal farmers. "Due to their prolific breeding and also breeding with domestic pigs, numbers of wild boars are increasing. We request the forest department to declare the wild boar as vermin as has been done in Punjab," said Chengal Reddy.
He added that "the orders issued in the states of AP and Telangana are inadequate and the government has to take a decision in the interest of farmers to check the increasing wild boar population."