Human casualties and agricultural crop raiding by wild pigs and mitigation strategies in India

We investigated the nature and extent of human-wild pig conflict in northern and central India. Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) surviving in disturbed and fragmented habitats were responsible for many human casualties and extensive damage to agricultural crops. Information on human causalities, place of attack, sex of victims, and agricultural crop raiding was collected from the records of the forest department and by interviewing villagers and ocular estimation of crop damage in 11 states. In total, there were 927 human casualties by wild pigs in these states during 1990-2010; out of which 4.2% were death cases and 95.8% injury cases. Male causalities were more (81.2%) than females (18.8%). Maximum cases (77.9%) occurred in forests, followed by 18.3% cases in crop fields and 3.8% cases in the vicinity of villages. Damage to agricultural crops by wild pigs was enormous and widespread. They fed on all phenological stages, but tender stages and matured crops were highly susceptible to damage. Damage to Triticum vulgare, Oryza sativa, Zea mays, Pennisetum typhoides, Saccharum officinarum, Arachis hypogea, Cicer arietinum, Hordeum vulgare, Sorghum vulgare and Brassica compestris was 5-20%, 5-15%, 10-30%, 5- 15%, 5-20%, 10-30%, 5-15%, 5-15%, 5-10% and 5-10% respectively in these states. Eleusine coracona, Phaseolus mungo, Glycine max, Sesamum indicum, Lens esculenta, Ipomoea batatas and Lythyrus sativum showed damage to varying extent (5-10%). In some areas, pulses and vegetables were damaged to 5-25%. Damage was very high in crop fields close to wildlife areas. Today, these problems have aggravated beyond tolerable limits and have resulted into direct conflict between people and wild pigs. This has also adversely affected the conservation ideals. Mitigation strategies for mitigation of these conflicts have been suggested.