It's easier to recruit licensed hunters, and begat a new profession!
You
speak to farmers, and each one has a problem with one or other of animal that
destroys their crops. I personally have the biggest problem from Monkeys in my
farm in Godagama, affecting mainly my Banana Trees, but to a lesser degree
reduces the yield of Coconut and King Coconut Trees also. With less habitat in
urban areas, where my farm is, I have more problems with them now than 20 years
ago, when they had more tracts of land to roam around in.
If you
look at their reproduction, it is proportionate to the food available as their
numbers are biologically reduced in the wild, whereas in urban and farming
areas with more fruit trees and tasty morsels, they are able to multiply.
However the guns we are permitted to use to combat this menace barely hurts
them.
I also
have problems with porcupines, digging the legumes I plant, and to a lesser
extent deer who come at night and eat young shoots of vegetable beds. I don’t have
a wild boar problem, but in the Kegalle District, I know many farmers have endless
problems with the rising population of Wild Boar. Their natural predator, foxes,
who used to feed on their young has been wiped out, so they have been able to
multiply. It is difficult to prevent them from harming crops, no matter what precautions
that you take to minimize their damage.
However
look at who is allowed to do what! I understand a cabinet paper is being
presented to permit, the transport of Wild Boar. That opens a whole can of
worms. Just remember even cattle cannot be killed except with a license, but
anyone is allowed to kill wild boar, and now when anyone is legally permitted
to transport Wild Boar, it will be easier to transport this than even beef!
How
come? First let us get our ethics right, before we begin a buckshot approach to
solving a problem. There are two issues here, one of killing animals on your
property if they harm your crops, and the second is being able to transport the
meat of that animal to sell, as that is effectively what it permits. The minute
you permit a delicacy to be sold, then you start a new business, that you will
later find impossible to control, and by trying to sort one problem out you
create many more problems due to lack of foresight and forethought.
So what
do we need? We need a proper mechanism to control out of control populations of
vermin. They maybe wild boar in parts of Kegalle, they maybe peacocks in parts
of Polonnaruwa, they maybe monkeys in urban areas like mine that is a growing nuisance,
giant squirrels in some areas eating the mango plantations, porcupines in other
areas, and lone male elephants in 60% of the Country that are trapped in
confined areas, due to lack of food and who stray into homesteads to look for
rich pickings!
What
does this all tell you? It is not a Wild Boar issue, it is an issue with a
whole series of pest human conflict costing the Agricultural Sector over Rs50B
of crop losses every year, and many farmers do not venture into increased
cultivation because of this menace. It’s a bigger issue that has to be managed.
What
you need is not a transport option, but a trained force within the DWC to combat
the threat of animals, armed with the right tools, to kill if need be, or
capture and re-locate en masse if possible, and if there is a delicacy that is
marketable, they will have the ONLY authority to market this game, by selling
legitimately in the open market from approved outlets. Revenuer generating!
If
there is a market for Monkey meat they can sell that. If they have to kill
stray cattle in National Parks like Maduru Oya, they should be able to sell
that beef too. It is a business proposition that can be done with a PPP with
the DWC. However all killing CAN ONLY BE DONE by DWC personnel who are given
the tools needed to do the job, so it does not permit a free for all.
When
one legitimizes GAME, then anything can be sold as Wild Boar, and is done today,
illegally with police sanction. So catching criminals is going to be harder for
the police, who would love this project of the Government as they can take
bribes from the Poachers and pass everything off as Wild Boar. So all varieties
of deer, sambur, land monitors, is fair GAME!
Why can’t
we in Sri Lanka understand that the people are brought up with a criminal mind
set, because they only see corruption succeed. Whether it is the local police
in rural areas, who along with the local politicians scam everyone for their
own ends, or drug dealers, and thugs with protection rackets becoming rich,
this is an automatic excuse for the criminal mind to get in on the act to
better themselves, in the guise of transporting Wild Boar. Don’t allow it!
You are
going to create a new class of hunter, in addition to the poachers, who will
purchase the rifles needed to kill, and make a sport of this. However the
poachers will lay traps ostensibly for Wild Boar, and kill every other creature
of the night, including Leopard, and Jungle Cat both of which are highly
endangered. Surely it is playing with the unpredictable, isn’t it?
Simply put, we cannot accede to this request to transport Wild Boar, without opening up a whole can worms, to the extent we will just not be able to control it. It will add another notch in the armory of bribe taking, that every law that is set up does. First allow the transport of beef, an item that is not scarce, and allow the slaughter of cattle in National Parks, that are preventing the Elephants from grazing, due to encroachment by cattle, adding to HEC, before venturing further. So let’s get our priorities right please, A before B, not F before D!
Simply put, we cannot accede to this request to transport Wild Boar, without opening up a whole can worms, to the extent we will just not be able to control it. It will add another notch in the armory of bribe taking, that every law that is set up does. First allow the transport of beef, an item that is not scarce, and allow the slaughter of cattle in National Parks, that are preventing the Elephants from grazing, due to encroachment by cattle, adding to HEC, before venturing further. So let’s get our priorities right please, A before B, not F before D!
5 comments:
Like you said, the pest issue is localized, and excepting for the HEC which has to be handled differently, there has to be a rapid deployment force that takes care of a problem, by killing or relocating, but the disposal should be the exclusive prerogative of the Department of Wildlife Conservation who have been entrusted with the task of ensuring that our Wildlife is protected, and if we have to kill to manage species balance then only they should be permitted to sell.
After all there is culling of elephants in some Countries to preserve the species, and in future it may be an option, if man has destroyed the food of our elephants for their survival.
Please don't provide blanket permission, just for the area (GN division) in which it is a real problem, otherwise in other areas where it is not, it will simply be concocted as a problem so the traditional poachers will have a field day laying traps, that will kill humans also.
NO NO NO
Why only wild boar then? We cannot make exceptions to Wild Boar as a special case as it is not. Another politicized gimmicks for votes, and not for the benefit of the Country.
A good farmer knows how to protect his crops, or do something else. Just allow the farmer to kill on his own property and invite the neighbors to eat the cooked Boar in his property, I am sure he will be popular.
Do not transport and sell at any cost as it creates a bigger problem that cannot be solved
profiteering through suffering and death is why capitalism has a bad name in mother Lanka! it's the capitalists that through all means seek to line their pockets at the expense of everyone and everything. murdering our neighbors is now allowed if they harm our bananas???? give me a break.
In a civilized country that obeys rules and Boar are killed, transported and sold in areas where they are a pest, this is not a problem. The issue is Sri Lanka is a land of rogues from the top, so the intention of the loosening of the law, will be misused and the police will allow the transport of all meats in the guise of Wild Boar for a bribe, increasing their illegal behavior, making them rich, not the killer, not the transporter, not the retailer.
So it is a typical hatchet job of the Police to make more money, and they must have nobbled an idiot politician to think they are doing a favor for the farmers, to get some votes, and so kill everything that moves.
Sri Lanka is not short of poachers, they kill everyday, it is just that they are in the wrong places. Just relocate them to where the Boar problem is greatest, then you will eliminate them in a matter of weeks. It is a really simple issue, and no lessening of restrictions are needed.
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