Wild animals causing heavy losses to farmers in state

Tribune News Service

Mandi, June 15

Farmers in the state are suffering a loss of nearly Rs 500 crore every due to damage by wild animals.

Paras Ram, district president, Himachal Kisan Sabha, said a report prepared by the organisation had revealed that wild animals, including monkeys, wild boars, neelgai, etc, were causing a loss of Rs 400-500 crore every year to farmers in the state.

According to an estimate, nearly 2,301 panchayats in the state have been affected by the wild animals, a majority of them (81 per cent) in Sirmaur district, 71 per cent in Solan, 57 per cent in Shimla, 38 per cent in Chamba, 25 per cent in Bilaspur, 28 per cent in Kangra and Kullu and 19 per cent in Mandi district.

Due to fear of crop damage, farmers had stopped farming on nearly 2 lakh hectare land, Ram said and added that crop loss was worth Rs 500-600 crore every year.

Nearly 84 per cent of the population in the state was in possession of 5 bighas or less land and 70 per cent of the population was engaged in agriculture or horticulture, he said.

It was wrong to say that the attacks by wild animals on crops had increased due to interference of humans in their natural habitats, he said. Farmers had never cut forest for farming. It was the forest mafia and those running power projects and cement plants that had forced the wild animals to move towards human habitations, he said.

Ram said the state and the Central governments were also responsible for the rise in the population of wild animals. The export of monkey was banned in 1978. Hunting was completely banned in 1983. Nearly 50,000 monkeys were exported every year at that time when the ban on export imposed, he said.

To contain the growing population of the monkeys, it was important to launch a sterilisation programme. Scientific culling should be initiated and ban on export for research work should be lifted. Fruit trees should be planted in forests or a special enclosure made in deep forest, he said.

Hem Singh, a resident of Kipper village in the district, said his five bighas of land had turned barren as he had stopped farming due to the fear of crop damage by wild animals.

He said nearly 90 per cent of maize crop in the village was damaged by the wild animals last year.

Nearly 100 bighas of land under Majhwar panchayat had turned barren as distraught farmers had stopped growing crop due to the menace by wild animals, he said.