Wild boar from Lawachara National Park in Kamalganj, Moulvibazar, are coming down to farmland in search of food, destroying paddy and various winter vegetable fields. Farmers are now forced to stay awake at night guarding their crops.

In the winter season the streams running through Lawachara forest dry up and many creepers and plants inside the forest die, leaving animals short of drinking water and food. This drives them out of the forest into human settlements in search of food.

Local farmers say many animals from Lawachara come into villages to find food, but at this time of year wild boar raid under cover of darkness and destroy ripe paddy and vegetable fields. Many farmers have suffered losses. To protect their crops, they keep watch at night in groups, armed with sticks and banging bamboo and tin to make noise.

Wild boar raid several villages around Lawachara forest as soon as night falls, including Longurpar, Dakshin Baligaon, Baghmara, Saraibari, Bherachhara and Chhatakchhara. Farmers say they have no choice but to guard their crops day and night.

The forest department says wild boar often come out of the forest at this time of year to eat crops, eating and damaging some of people's harvest. They cannot be kept within a set boundary.

Farmers guarding their fields say that when they try to drive the boar away, the animals chase people instead. After working all day they have to stay up all night guarding the crops. Because of the boar raids they cannot leave any crop in the fields, and troops of monkeys also come and eat the crops. Farmers build raised platforms of bamboo several feet high in the fields and keep watch from them at night.

Farmers Konai Mia and Abul Mia, guarding crops at night, said that as soon as aman harvest time comes, groups of boar eat and destroy the ripe paddy. "So we keep watch until the crop is cut," they said.

Jamil Mohammad Khan, Assistant Conservator of Forests of the Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Division in Moulvibazar, said Lawachara's animals were going to human settlements for food. Wildlife has no fixed boundary, and "even if we wanted to, we could not stop them," he said. The numbers of boar and monkeys in Lawachara have grown considerably over the past few years compared with before. Everyone must be kind to animals and no one should harm any animal deliberately, he said.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.