Wildlife menace hit farming revenues in Kerala

George Joseph, a 57-year-old farmer in Koruthodu bordering forest area in Kerala’s Kottayam district, has been carrying out rubber farming on his ten-acre plantation over the past 35 years. But these days he is reluctant to go for tapping, fearing a wild elephant attack. George Joseph is one among the many tappers who have been kept away from tapping in the early hours of the day, by elephant and wild boar menace. He barely manages to do tapping once a week. Consequently, he suffers a loss of about 40 kg of natural rubber sheets at a time when rubber prices are looking buoyant at ₹200 per kg. 

In the last 2-3 years, human-wildlife conflicts bordering forest areas have been threatening the farming community with crop damage, revenue drop, declining productivity and loss of lives. According to Santosh Kumar, CEO, Harrisons Malayalam Ltd, plantations always had a history of man-animal co-existence. But in the last few years the issue of man-animal conflict has assumed humongous proportions. Human casualties by wild life ingress are a matter of serious concern. Many properties of the company are bearing the brunt of the menace when tea and natural rubber are going through a profound crisis due to fall in prices and high costs.

Replanting and development cost of natural rubber is as high as ₹8 lakh per hectare. The new farm can be wrecked by a single night of ingress by wild elephants as conventional protection measures like fences, solar fences are ineffective. It is high time to look for stronger and effective measures to prevent loss of lives and livelihoods, he said.

In Munnar in Idukki district, dairy farming has been hit by attacks on cattle by aged tigers unable to hunt in the wild. I. Guruswamy, president of Lakshmi Milk Producer Cooperative Society in Munnar, said there was a time when dairy farming was at its peak, with the rearing of more than 7,000 cattle. This number has come down to 3,000 as tiger attacks forced farmers to withdraw from cattle farming. As a result, milk production fell to 3,900 litres per day compared with over 5,000 litres last year. Kanan Devan Hills Plantations Company is extending support to dairy farmers by providing workers for cattle rearing in the estate areas and constructing cattle sheds, he said.

Forest department officials maintain that the government spent ₹2,179.80 lakh in 2023-24 as compensation for cattle loss, crop and property damage, human injury, human death etc. The compensation given in 2024-25 up to December 2024 was ₹504.45 lakh.

To restrict intrusion of wild animals into human habitations, measures like solar fencing, elephant trenches, crash guard rope fencing etc have been put up.