Public participation should be ensured to tackle the wild animal menace in residential areas, Minister for Forest A.K. Saseendran has said.
A draft proposal in this regard would be introduced in the next Cabinet meeting, he said, inaugurating various developmental projects at the Marayur sandalwood division on Tuesday.
The Minister said wild animal that destroyed crops had caused widespread losses to farmers who had the burden of heavy loans on them. The government would ensure security of life and property to farmers in the high range, he said. However, a proposal before the Union government to declare wild boar as vermin had not received a positive reply, he added.
The State government was planning to give honorary wildlife warden status to the secretary of local bodies to enable them to drive away or eliminate wild boars that attacked crops in residential areas.
The Minister said that workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and forest dwellers should be used to counter the wild animal menace in areas bordering forests.
The measures adopted in a particular area may not be practical in another area and tailor-made strategies were needed to counter the menace. The movement of wild animals to residential and cultivated areas should be monitored and the public alerted. A monitoring committee at the local body level should be created and measures taken to relax man-animal conflicts, he said.
The Minister also released a theme song, ‘PeriyanChandanakkade’, at the function.
