Udupi: The issue of wild animals destroying crops dominated the Raitha Janasamparka Sabha (farmer contact meeting) chaired by the Minister for Fisheries, Youth Empowerment and Sports, Pramod Madhwaraj, at the District Offices Complex Hall here on Saturday.

Satish, leader of the Zilla Raitha Sangha, said animals such as monkeys, deer, wild boar, and wild oxen were destroying crops, including coconut and arecanut. It has become difficult for farmers to get licence for rifles to scare these animals away, and both the Forest Department and the district administration are responsible for this, he said. The other farmers supported him.

Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis said applications for new rifles had been cleared by the administration. The farmers said renewal of licences of rifles was tough as it required a No-Objection Certificate and the Forest Department was delaying it.

B.V. Poojary, president of district unit of Bharatiya Kisan Sangh said the staff of Forest Department should plant fruit-bearing saplings to see that animals, especially the monkeys, did not come out of the forests. A plan to set up a monkey park in Karkala taluk had been lying in the cold storage for the last six years. “You (Forest Department) should take care of your animals and not let them in our fields,” he said.

To this, the Deputy Conservator of Forests, Ganesh Bhat, said that the animals in the forests belonged to everyone and not just to the department. When some farmers said that the department should fence the borders of the forests to prevent the animals from entering the villages, Mr. Bhat said that there was a scheme to fence such borders with the government and farmer concerned contributing 50% each of the cost. But the farmers said that the design of the fence provided by the department was not suited to the coastal region.

Intervening, Mr. Madhwaraj said the Wildlife Protection Act was a powerful law and officers could not go against it. However, he said he would arrange a meeting of a delegation of farmers and legislators from Udupi district with the Minister for Forests and Environment Ramanath Rai in Bengaluru during the forthcoming legislature session, where the problem of man-animal conflict could be discussed, he said.