La Calabria is invaded by over 300.000 wild boars who take advantage of the restrictions linked tocoronavirus emergency to search for food undisturbed on the streets of cities. An extraordinary phenomenon from an environmental and wildlife point of view, but which in Calabria has turned into an emergency especially for cultivated fields. One of the last sightings was recorded in Soverato, a tourist town on the Ionian coast which has been a destination for these wild animals several times. Also in this case, in full Covid-19 emergency, the wild boar traveled the streets of the city and the beach, before returning to the woods of the nearby mountains.
It is not the first time this has happened, but Coldiretti Calabria has underlined all the negative effects of these invasions that multiply, as the number of these mammals grows. “In the last year - highlights the AGI Fabio Borrello, provincial president Coldiretti Catanzaro - 3.500 killing were authorized in the hunting period open from September to December. So only about one percent of the leaders present. For this reason, breeders have been authorized, hunters responsible for killing wild boars even outside the hunting season.
In the midst of their activity, however, the Covid-19 emergency intervened and restrictions have blocked this type of activity. The dramatic result is that wild boars reproduce rapidly and the situation is completely out of control ”. The central area of Calabria, with the provinces of Catanzaro, Vibo Valentia and Crotone is right one of the most affected by this phenomenon: “This uncontrolled presence creates significant damage to crops - explains Coldiretti - and causes health problems, including on the roads where they cause accidents.
The situation got out of hand, the plantations are devastated and for an agricultural entrepreneur all this represents an irrecoverable blow in an economy already marked by the restrictions in place ”. "For Covid - underlines Coldiretti - everything has stopped and there are no positive results in contrasting this phenomenon, also considering that the wild boar does not have a real antagonist in nature ". In front of thousands of wild boars, often spotted in groups with the large litter in tow, Coldiretti's proposals are those of "modification of the regional regulations that date back to twenty-two years ago and which were designed for the protection and protection of wildlife, in order to reconstitute the fauna and which today have evidently proved no longer suitable ".
We asked to extend the hunting calendar - says president Borrello - also authorizing the agricultural entrepreneurs with a hunting permit to shoot the wild animal that invades the crops ". For years the trade associations have been asking for concrete interventions, but Covid19 has settled the definitive shot to uncontrolled reproduction, with incalculable damage to the agricultural economy and road safety ".