The numbers relating to the collection of wild boars in the province of Bergamo are worrying the local section of the Coldiretti. According to the association, in fact, the containment of ungulates had to concern 550 heads and instead we stopped at an altitude 390. How to explain this difference of 160 animals? The fear is the same as the Bergamo producers are experiencing and it is necessary to understand if the result is the result of operations that failed to keep the wild boar population under control or if there were errors at the time of the census.
The rural and peri-urban areas of this part of Lombardy are however considered to be in serious danger by direct farmers, given that these wild animals can proliferate uncontrollably, to the detriment of farms. The numbers refer to the end of 2015, when the hunting season ended. The 160 wild boars that "escaped" the planned hunt could soon repeat their forays into the countryside or into inhabited centers; moreover, again according to what was reported by Coldiretti Bergamo, they will reproduce and invade ever larger areas.
The most concrete risk, therefore, is that the situation gets out of hand in an irreversible way. The association has made it known how in the last ten years the total number of ungulates in Italy has doubled: theISPRA (Higher Institute of Environmental Protection and Research) highlighted the presence of no less than 600 wild boars in 2005, 900 in 2010 and over a million in 2015. Among other things, Bergamo is the most affected province of Lombardy in this case: it is about 150 wild boar raids that have been reported within twelve months, with particularly heavy damage.
Coldiretti Bergamo has specifically asked to be enlightened on the methods of intervention of the entities that are in charge of sampling, both as regards the actual containment operations and as regards compensation for damages. The communiqué hopes that no more time will be lost to avoid the invasion of wild boars in areas of the province where agriculture is highly specialized. Throughout the Lombardy region, wild boars account for just under a third of the total damage caused to the primary sector (about 27%) and in the last decade there has been a threefold increase in attacks. In 2004 there were 329, while in 2013 the total rose to 952, with almost 500 euros in damage. Finally, again based on Coldiretti Lombardia as a source, road accidents caused by wildlife increased over twelve times in the same period (from 41 to 500).