By George Kommattathil
Kozhikode: Farmers in Kerala have demanded protection of their lives and farms from wild animals.
Wild animals such as boars, monkeys, and elephants destroy cultivation and often threaten the lives of farmers in the southern Indian state.
“We are under constant threat and our life is in peril due to the attack of wild animals,” laments Augustine Pallath, a 70-year-old farmer from Kakkadampoyil, a hilly region in the Syro-Malabar diocese of Thamarassery.
Recently wild boars entered the house of a farmer in Poovathumchola village in Kozhikode district and destroyed everything in the house. Finally, foresters had to shoot them inside the house. The wild animals had moved from the forest to the farmers’ house.
Farmers and the Church have been demanding the protection of their farm from wild animals for a long time.
Pallath says that the farmers in Kerala now cultivate to feed the wild animals not their children. “The situation is very serious in rural areas, but the government has not taken any steps to control them permanently,” he adds
Jerish Kocheril, another farmer from Chakkittapara in Kozhikode district, says their demand for protection from wild animals may sound funny to outsiders.
“You may laugh at our demands. But it is grave. We cannot survive anymore. We work hard and wild boars destroy it as usual. How we will survive? The contradiction is that farmers are less protected than animals in our country,” Kocheril explained.
He recalled the case of a farmer who a few years ago tried to commit suicide when wild boar destroyed his crop cultivated with a bank loan. “We have no other way, we are ready to follow the suit” Kocheril cautioned.
The threat from wild boars has become grave after the central government included wild boar in the list of protected animals in 2004.
“Now they have multiplied like anything and now they have settled in the farm since farmers are unable to chase them away, if they do that they will be charged” says Joy Kannanchira, state chairman of a farmers’ union.
He wants the government to amend the law to keep wild boar out of the list of protected animals. “That law is not applicable in Kerala, because most of the people in villages depend on agriculture for their livelihood,” Kannanchira explained.
The farmers leader wants the government to protect humans and their cultivation while protecting animals. “In villages, people are unable to send their children to school or go for rubber tapping fearing the attack of wild boar,” he pointed out.
Kannanchira demanded that the government should take a concrete step to protect farm and farmers unless there will be no farmers in our state.
Pallath said they are grateful to Church people for bringing their plight to public. “Often our cries are unheard, government neglect us since we are minorities. Anyway, most of the Christians depend on their farm for their livelihood,” he added.
(This was first reported in keralacatholiconline.com)