Demanding stern action over issues surrounding wildlife intrusion into farmlands near forest fringes in Coimbatore, members of the Tamil Nadu Farmers’ Association staged a demonstration near the South Taluk Office here on Saturday.

Raising slogans against the State government for remaining silent on the issue, the members also stated that if the issue persisted, all farmlands would be destroyed by wild animals in the future.

“Farmlands in Coimbatore are being intruded upon and crops are damaged by wild animals including elephant, wild boar, spotted deer and even peafowl,” said one of the farmers.

He further added that the farmers were unable to withstand the brute force of these animals and the government too had been silent by not giving a concrete solution to wildlife intrusions.

“Though the trenches provided by the Forest Department had helped avert animal intrusion, peafowls were very hard to control and they pecked at crops, flowers or any vegetation in rural areas,” said M.R. Sivasamy, the President of the Association.

The members also claimed that the Forest Department should give permission to farmers to shoot animals that intruded into farmlands. Besides wildlife, electricity towers along farmlands had also been a major issue to the farmers.

They demanded that the State government should immediately compensate for the loss incurred by wildlife and sort out the rent issues in the areas where electricity towers were installed.

More than 150 members of the Association participated in the demonstration.