Farmers suffer losses as wild boars graze Pakistan’s northern farmlands

Wild boars in the Hazara region have caused great trouble for farmers whose crops are being uprooted and destroyed. High temperatures in the region have attracted boars to the farmlands. Farmers initially assumed that the boars were bears having not encountered them before. Sajid Sidiq, the agriculture officer in Abbottabad, said farmers in the Hazara belt, Margalla hills and adjacent Kashmir region are bearing the brunt of this climate change-induced migration.
“The farming community in Hazara is perturbed and in a deep financial crisis due to the arrival of feral pigs in their areas and the resulting damage to crops,” Sidiq explained. The boars have been attacking crops uprooting crops and farmers fear that they will face financial losses. Farmers have been growing crops that do not appeal to the boar in order to curb crop destruction. The issue was also brought up in the Khyberpakhtunwa assembly and it was proposed the farmers be give guns in order to hunt the animals. Tracking dogs would also be used to hunt the boars. Read more from Propergaanda: Lockdown extended till 9 May as cases cross 11,000