The wild boar; Bored to be wild
Hi everyone, I am back with a new post and
with new information, hope you will all enjoy reading it. Recently I made a
visit to the Nelliyampathy forest range of Palakkad of state Kerala, India. ‘The Nelliyampathy’
a place which touched my heart with its amazing view points, dense forest, tea
and coffee plantations and the most importantly the fauna of
Nelliyampathy. It is home for rare
species like Malabar giant squirrels, deer, elephants, gaurs, wild boars and
many others.
Nelliyampathy Forest Range
Pothundi dam
On my safari I was very happy spotting a Malabar
giant squirrel clinging to a tall tree, birds with beautiful voices and the
trumpet calls of the elephants. In spite of these astounding moments, what made
me cry is for a wild boar.
A boar probably a male (since male boars
prefer to have a solitary life) was sighted near the cottages of ‘Keshavanpara’.
The ladies residing at the cottages rushed to their kitchens to bring some food
the moment they saw this creature. A lady managed to call him towards her backyard
and offered some food. The boar on the other hand easily understood her
language and rushed towards her. When enquired regarding this, it was
surprising that it was their daily routine.
Wild Boar (Sus scrofa cristatus)
Wild boar (Sus scrofa cristatus) or wild pig found in dense forests is one of
the least concerned animals. The stretched out canines make it different from
the domestic pig. It is one of the most important mammals targeted for hunting
and poaching purposes. The wild boars live in a small groups called sounder.
Males prefer to live a solitary life except for mating. In order to stay away
from hunters it has adapted to nocturnal foraging.
Wild boars are omnivorous; they eat
anything they find around. They feed on the stuffs which are easily available
for them. This might have facilitated them to stay close with the human
habitations. Despite of this there are lot of incidences suggesting the
human-boar conflicts. Wild pigs caused maximum human casualties in forests
(73.8%) than crop fields (21.7%) and villages (4.5%) (Chauhan et.al., 2009).The number of cases of
injuries inflicted to human beings by wild boar is much more than by any other
wild animals (YashVir Singh). Wild boars create considerable amount of loss to
agricultural crops, this behaviour of boars are even mentioned in the bible-
Psalms 80:13 “Boars from the forest
ravage it and the creatures of the field feed on it”. When the wild boar
menace peaks in crop fields, they will be considered ‘vermin’ and their culling
is legalized for certain period. They are very aggressive if they are intruded,males
can defend themselves with the help of their canines. Boars can spread diseases
that can be fatal to the domestic livestock. They carry many parasites on them
such as microbes, flukes, fleas etc.
Wild Boar being fed by local villagers
I would like to say that, taming wild
animals are illegal moreover feeding them will make them more dependent on us
and may lose its natural feeding habits. It may even lose its wilderness if
they adapt to human habitations and lead to mutations in future generations. Wild
animals have to be conserved in wild without human interference. We humans may
also get infected by parasites, ticks or fleas present on the wild animals. Let
us all join our hands and say
‘no taming wild
References:
- ChauhanN.P.S. – Kuldeep S. B. – Devender Kumar.(2009): Human–Wild Pig Conflict in Selected States in India and Mitigation Strategies. ActaSilv. Lign. Hung. 5: 189-197
- YashVir Singh: A Study of Human-Wildlife Conflicts in Eastern Vidarbha Region Of Maharashtra: http://www.terisas.ac.in/mct/pdf/assignment/yashvir-singh.pdf
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