If you compare the month of May 2019 with that of the current year - says Pietro Sirianni director of Coldiretti of Reggio Calabria - based on the inspections that we carry out daily with our technicians, we can easily say that the damage caused to production and agricultural structures by wild boar in 2020 have doubled. To this is added - he continues - that throughout the provincial territory the situation is now out of control and dangerous because wild boars are no longer in the countryside but sightings in towns and suburbs are more and more frequent.
In recent weeks, - explains Sirianni - the areas manned and conquered by wild boars have become increasingly large, with damage to crops, farm roads, edges, drainage channels and in some cases over 50% of the terraced areas have been damaged with the destruction of dry stone walls, in hilly and mountainous areas at high hydrogeological risk, discouraging those who do heroic agriculture because the restoration of walls is a difficult, expensive and not easy work. the likely effects will be landslides and landslides. However, what alarms us most are the risks to the safety of people, whether they find themselves working in the countryside or in urban areas or walking along the streets occupied by some specimen that causes automobile accidents.
In fact - he explains - if until now the risk was limited to farmers, mushroom hunters and users of wooded and rural areas for leisure or work, now we must report that several of our associates have sighted near urban areas and in the suburbs. in the early hours of dawn or after sunset numerous specimens. Intolerance is no longer only on the part of farmers, but the presence of wild boars in urbanized areas scares many. For our part - he exposes - we are carrying out continuous monitoring to further confirm with timely data the drama of the phenomenon and therefore we invite citizens and farmers to report the damage to our offices even if no compensation is sought. We understand the demotivation of farmers who no longer make requests, because induced by the fact that the refreshment is almost never seen and the same has always been underestimated due to inability or perhaps instrumentally to discourage agricultural enterprises from making further requests.
We can no longer accept that the local authorities in charge, such as the Territorial Hunting Areas, postpone the payment of damages with respect to the requests presented by farmers, just as we do not intend to postpone the estimates of the damages suffered that offend those who work in the countryside, because they underestimate the extent. Keep saying that urgent interventions are needed to solve the problem, because the continuation of the situation brings farms to their knees discourages entrepreneurs who see their efforts thwarted, up to the drastic decision to close the business, with economic, social and environmental damage, is perhaps useless and also offensive towards those who, by their competence, are required to intervene.
This, - he says - in the province of Reggio Calabria is another alibi that saves everyone. We do not have a culling plan and therefore, we are all justified in shrug shoulders, to say we can not do anything! To protect public and private safety - concludes Sirianni - Coldiretti of Reggio invites the mayors of the metropolitan area to proceed with an urgent trade union ordinance for the capture and / or killing of wild boars in the wild, an ordinance, moreover, already adopted in other municipalities in Italy.