Hyderabad: Sarpanches get licence to kill wild boars

Hyderabad: Soon sarpanches in the State will soon turn into hunters. The state government has given absolute powers to sarpanches to shoot and kill wild boars which have been straying into villages and damaging the crops.

The surprise move to delegate powers to the Village Heads to eliminate the wild boars was taken by the state Forest Department which had failed to deal with the issue in many parts of the state.

"The Sarpanch has been appointed as honorary Wildlife Warden to hunt the Wild Pigs which have become dangerous to human life and property outside the protected areas and reserved forests.

The village heads are permitted to cull the wild animals which damage agriculture / horticulture crops outside the protected areas and reserve forest areas," stated an order issued by the Forest officials. Lack of adequate forest staff was one of the main reasons to accord more powers to the sarpanches.

However, the powers of sarpanch have some conditions to be fulfilled. He will have to act only on the written complaint of the farmers. After receiving the complaint, the honorary wildlife warden along with farmers and village elders would visit the locations for investigation and assess the situation and a plan.

For the purpose of hunting, the sarpanch should take the services of the hunters who are in the panel of shooters prepared by the state Forest department. Utmost care should be taken while hunting the wild pigs to ensure that no other animal and human being are injured or killed and no human property should also be destroyed or damaged in the task.

The carcass of the wild animal would be buried under the ground in the presence of the forest staff. Officials clarified that killing the wild pigs in the protected and reserved forest areas is a punishable offence.