Asaps Observatory data
In Puglia, wild boars have become a growing road hazard, with 12 serious accidents recorded in 2024, directly caused by the ungulates, posing risks to motorists and pedestrians. However, every year, hundreds of wild boar-related accidents occur, often unreported by motorists, who are aware that they are unlikely to receive compensation, according to an estimate. Coldiretti Puglia Based on data from the ASAPS Observatory. This emergency adds to the overall data on road accidents in Puglia in 2024, with 11.026 accidents, 241 fatalities, and 17.013 injuries. This represents an increase compared to 2023 (+12% accidents, +14% injuries), with a 3,9% increase in fatalities, bucking the slight national decline (-0,3%), according to the latest report on road accidents compiled by ISTAT.
Security at risk
The extraordinary regional plan for the management and containment of wild fauna in Puglia, starting with the wild boar (Sus scrofa), approved by the Puglia Regional Council and strongly supported by Coldiretti, which has also pushed for action with thousands of farmers demonstrating outside the Regional Palace, must be fully and immediately implemented. The safety of farmers' produce is at risk, as is the health of motorists due to the presence of wild animals and wild boars, which can weigh up to 1.5 quintals and grow to 150 centimeters in length. This fear, Coldiretti Puglia emphasizes, spreads from the hills to the plains, from the areas near the reservoirs to those by the sea, but in small provincial towns with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, it reaches as high as 83% of residents.
An Eldorado for wild boars
With Puglia invaded by 250 thousand wild boars, there is not only the plague of wild boars, but it is an alarm for the safety of people in the countryside and cities with packs that push right into urban centers, among parked cars, strollers with children and elderly people going to do the shopping, with the areas of the Murgia barese and tarantina, of the Gargano and of the Daunia sub-Apennines - insists Coldiretti Puglia - become the Eldorado of wild boars that devastate the crops devouring Altamura lentils. grass peas, broad beans, chickpeas and peas, broccoli, vegetables, newly sown seedlings of fava beans and wheat, grapes especially on espalier vines, fruit shaking the trees, all the undergrowth and the biodiversity of the woods and parks.
Wildlife
The damage caused by wildlife is enormous, with wild boars destroying crops and attacking humans and livestock, as well as feral wolves and dogs; starlings wiping out olive production and destroying work areas; hares literally devouring entire vegetable fields; cormorants eating fish in aquaculture facilities; green parrots feeding on fruit and almonds; and the killer of the seas, the blue crab, exterminating clams, mussels, eggs, other fish, and mollusks. The overall damage is estimated at over €30 million. Coldiretti Puglia is calling for urgent and coordinated interventions, combining pack containment, road safety, and crop protection, to protect citizens, farmers, and biodiversity (source: Coldiretti Puglia).
You May Also Like ..
