Mahottari, 10th February: Farmers in the district are worried after wild boars started entering villages and towns and damaging crops. The number of wild boars entering villages and towns from the forest in search of food has been increasing recently. “Look, three to four generations of wild boars are seen in the bushes near the Dashgaja (Nepal-India border) at the back of our village,” says 75-year-old Rahiman Mandal of Chauriya, Jaleshwor-5. “They are being fed by the crops planted by farmers, they are looking for bushes to live in, and why should they remember the forest and jungle!” He said that the permanent residence of wild boars in herds (groups) has increased near the settlements around them in the border area up to Chauriya, Pataili, Musarpatti and Khaira.
Wild boars are abundant in the 39-kilometer stretch from Matihani in the east to Khairwani in the west, which borders the district with India. According to Kaushilal Yadav, a resident of Khairwani, wild boars are seen more in the areas with bamboo bushes in the river valley area. He says that their activities are not only seen here but also in the neighboring Indian settlements across the border.
There is a fear of wild boars in all the settlements of Bhangaha Municipality, 15 kilometers south of Bardibas. The wild boars, which live in the same area until the sugarcane is cut, move to another nearby place after the sugarcane is cut, says Mukunda Dahal, 65, a social activist from Bhangaha-4. Dahal says that the fear of wild boars has made it difficult to mow grass, take care of fields, and go out for a walk. Dahal has experienced that the latest generation of wild boars do not attack like they did when they first came out of the forest five to seven years ago. Residents of this area say that this may have happened because they have become accustomed to the constant movement of people.
Farmers complain that wild boars mostly uproot and eat small banana plants, cabbage, wheat, and green vegetable plants. “We have not been able to harvest properly for the last four to five years due to their terror,” says Mohammad Qadir Hussain of Mohanpur, Ramgopalpur-2. “Now it is as if we planted crops just for them.”
Like wild boars, nilgai are now found in large numbers in the far southern settlements of the district. Ramsnehi Yadav of Bairiya, Aurahi Municipality-4, says that nilgai are constantly migrating to the forest. “While wild boars have started living here permanently, it seems that nilgai are grazing here and returning to the forest every few days,” says Yadav. “However, nilgai are also seen in large numbers in places.” Now, wild boars and nilgai are not wild animals but have become like animals living around the settlement, say the residents of the settlement, including Yadav.
Farmers are currently fed up with the rampage of wild boars and nilgai around the settlements of all 15 local levels of the district. The farmers are saddened that the government has not taken any initiative to control them. “We have been pleading with the local level, police, and administration,” says Mansul Kawari of Rauja in Balwa Municipality, “but no reliable solution seems to have been found.”
Especially in the northern part of the district, as the forests are being destroyed and settlements are increasing, these wild animals are being squeezed and are declining, according to the elders here. Ram Bahadur Bhujel, an agricultural expert from Bhangaha-5, Sitapur, said that the decline in wild animals has increased due to the increasing human activity in the forest, increasing pressure from poachers, and decreasing water and food.
