Chinanews, Harbin, Nov. 13 - Since August last year, a large number of boars have run into the forest farms in the cities of Mudanjiang, Jixi and Jiamusi in Heilongjiang province, using their snouts to destroy crops on the farm. In order not to cause any harm to these protected animals and also to protect local people’s crops, the Jiamusi Forestry Bureau has recently decided to catch and raise these boars.

 

In August 2005, eight forest farms located in Tangyuan County in Jiamusi reported to the city’s forestry bureau that groups of wild pigs were destroying their crops. Later, another 11 national forest farms in Huachuan and Huanan in Jiamusi also reported similar incidents. According to local peasants, these boars, with five to ten forming a group, destroyed large areas of crops on the land and caused a damage to their harvest.

 

In Jiamusi, there is an overproduction of boars occurring in the city as the natural and ecological environment has begun to improve over the past few years. As it is illegal to hunt boars and the animal has a high reproductive capacity, the number of boars has risen substantially. Based on a rough calculation from local forestry bureau, some 2,000 boars have frequently appeared on the forestry farms in Jiamusi.

 

A person in charge at the Forestry Affairs Department in Jiamusi Forestry Bureau said that as boars were protected animals in Jiamusi, they normally drove them away instead of killing them if these boars didn’t hurt humans. To prevent poaching activities, they have planned to carry out an investigation on the wild animal resources in the city, and have decided to raise boars and turn them into a local breeding industry, given that it does not destroy local biological chain.