The Braslav District Executive Committee initiates a review of the special wild boar hunting regime regulations

June 9, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The Braslav District Executive Committee is initiating a review of the regulations for introducing a special wild boar hunting regime, as reported to BELTA correspondent by the chairman of the district commission on damage by wild animals, Nikolai Baranovsky. Currently, the regulation on the special regime for the use of wild boar resources, which cause damage by destroying or damaging agricultural crops, provides for an increase in the hunting quota for this animal if 25% of the total sown area is damaged. However, this threshold does not include the percentage of damage to household plots of citizens living in administrative-territorial units, explained Nikolai Baranovsky. According to a sociological survey conducted in the villages of the district, 70% of respondents stated that the main problem is damage to household plots by wild boars. In 2008, the district commission received 132 applications for damage to private lands. In the same year, boars damaged crops on 7.6 thousand hectares of public agricultural land, or 20.4% of the total sown area. The destruction of grain crops alone in agricultural enterprises was estimated at Br1.1 billion. According to Nikolai Baranovsky, fencing off areas, installing electric fences, and scaring them away with noise devices do not yield the desired effect. Boars are not afraid of people and agricultural machinery; groups of animals move openly through settlements and are already causing damage directly in the villages. Since the beginning of this year alone, the commission has received 30 applications from citizens regarding damage to winter crops and perennial grasses by boars. With the ripening of potatoes and corn, which boars favor, the number of applications will increase many times over. The population of wild boars in the "Braslav Lakes" National Park, according to its specialists, is 880 individuals. According to the district authorities, despite the optimal number of boars after the winter count, the damage caused by the animals is very significant. In this regard, the district authorities have appealed to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Forestry with a proposal to reduce the damage threshold for wild boars from 25% of the total sown area of agricultural crops to 15% when declaring a special hunting regime in the administrative-economic unit. The district executive committee also proposes to plan the maximum boar harvest within the limit during the summer period, which will make scaring them away from crops near settlements more effective. The conditions of the special regime allow for hunting wild boars at a distance of no less than 10 m from the outer buildings of settlements, hunting boars from ambushes and stalking, and hunting wild boars of any sex and age, except for sows leading the herd. In areas where a special regime is declared, hunting ground users are obliged to organize the capture of wild boars with live traps and sell single permits for their hunting at lower prices. Special ambush hunting sites for wild boars are equipped in agricultural lands. As reported by Oleg Mikhnevich, Head of the State Control Department for the Protection and Use of Land, Forests, Fauna, and Flora of the Vitebsk Regional Committee for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, wild boars cause damage to agricultural lands not only in Braslav. Agricultural enterprises and the population in the Miory and Postavy districts are also suffering losses from damage to crops by wild boars. The reason for this, according to the specialist, is the increased number of this animal. According to hunting rules, summer-autumn hunting for boars in Belarus is permitted from May 15 to September 30 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 AM. Rifle hunting from ambushes and stalking adult males over 2 years old, as well as young animals under two years of age of any sex, is permitted. -0-