Kerala govt. plans law to allow regulated culling of wild animals endangering human lives and raiding crop lands

The Hindu

28-05-2025

The Kerala Cabinet on Wednesday examined the legal prospects of introducing a Bill in the next session of the Assembly to sanction well-regulated and scientific culling of wild animals, primarily feral boars, which endanger human life, menace human habitations, and destroy farmlands in the State.
It tasked the Principal Secretary, Forests, to work with the Principal Secretary, Law, to submit proposals for the draft Bill.
As a stopgap, the Cabinet extended an order designating heads of local self-government institutions (LSGIs) or their deputies as honorary chief wildlife wardens to enlist empanelled shooters with licensed firearms to cull marauding wild boars and dispose of their carcasses in the presence of wildlife enforcers and independent government witnesses.
After the Cabinet meeting, Forest Minister A.K. Saseendran told reporters that the government sought the Advocate General's opinion on whether the proposed law would conflict with the Indian Wildlife Act, 1972.
Simultaneously, the government would seek the Centre's permission to declare wild boars as vermin and lift the conservation protection given to the species under Schedule III of the Act in the farmers' interest.
The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) had flagged mitigating the wild boar menace as a political imperative ahead of the 2025 local body polls and the Assembly elections 2026.
The administration has faced repeated criticism from Church-backed settler farmer communities, a significant electoral bloc, for allegedly not doing enough to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts, including those involving wild elephants, leopards, tigers, and monkeys.
Human-wildlife conflict deaths have turned into public ire against the government and a rallying cry for the opposition to muster popular opinion against the ruling front during the crucial run-up to the local body and Assembly polls. It's a central talking point for the opposition in the Nilambur Assembly by-election campaign.
Wild boars have emerged as an existential threat to settler farmers, a politically animating issue for the community in at least 11 districts with significant forest cover. The wild boar threat spans 243 panchayats spread across 54 Assembly constituencies in the State.
The menace has almost cratered the rural economy. Farmers have left large swathes of land used for pineapple, tapioca, and other tubers to lie fallow, untended and overgrown.
Recently, small-scale rubber cultivators have found that wild boars have developed a taste for the bark of young trees, making replanting difficult. The wild animals also posed a threat to cardamom and coffee plantations.
Moreover, wild boars have attacked humans, including schoolchildren, two-wheeler riders, pedestrians, and early-morning walkers. They have trespassed into houses, causing panic.
According to government estimates, the wildlife menace has resulted in crop losses of an estimated 9,000 hectares of farmland in the State since 2020. The dearth of licensed shooters and the reluctance of certain local bodies to compensate those involved in wild boar culling operations have impeded the effective eradication of the menace.