Attacked by wild boar, villagers assault forest officials

Four forest personnel were today assaulted and injured by angry villagers who were protesting the ongoing wild boar menace in their locality in Kendrapara district, the police said.
The rogue wild boar killed a man and injured at least six persons on February 13 in an agriculture field in Hatabanapur village under Derabish police station.
The animal today injured a man when forest department personnel were trying to capture the animal.
This enraged the local people who assaulted them and damaged their vehicle, a forest department official said.
The three injured officials were Ashok Jena (forest range officer), Dillip Champatiray (deputy forest range officer, Umesh Barik (forester) and Pradeep Bhuyan (forester).

The village, located far away from the forest areas, had never before witnessed attack by wild animals.

Villagers also staged road blockade near Balia junction paralysing vehicular traffic on the busy Cuttack-Chandballi state highway.
As the man-wildlife conflict has reached a flashpoint in Hatabanapur, Baspur and Chakroda villages, the authorities are finding it difficult to drive away the intruder.
A forest official said the department was not in favour of killing the boar though it had attacked people. It would be an offence under wildlife law to kill it as it has not been proclaimed as a rogue animal, the official said.

Driving away the animal may cause further trouble as it could stray into Kendrapara Township, he said.
"Caging the animal by net is also quite a task. Taming the animal by the use of tranquilising bullets is the sole option left," the official said.