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A county in Southwest China's Sichuan Province inundated with wild boars has seen its crops suffer heavy damage, but the villagers' attempts to hunt the boars has turned out to be "mission impossible" without a professional hunting team due to the particular fierceness of the beasts in the area. 

Farmers in Tongjiang county in Bazhong city, Sichuan have suffered heavy losses in their crops in recent years due to the inundation of wild boars in the county. The county was listed as a pilot county in the province for the prevention and control of wild boars in July after a preliminary investigation into the wild boar population was conducted last year which showed that there were around 20,000 wild boars across the county as of the end of 2020. 

"Although the figure based on rough estimates by each township is not very accurate, the large population of wild boards has threatened the safety of people's lives and their properties," Li Bin, director of Tongjiang Wild Animal Protection Center, told the Global Times on Monday. 

A villager surnamed Zhang said that the wild boars often destroyed his corns and sweet potatoes when the crops become mature in July and August, according to Cover News. 

Although Tongjiang county took the lead in establishing a government rescue insurance mechanism for the damage caused by wild animals in March, and allocated over 400,000 yuan to compensate the losses of the villagers, too many claims need to be covered. 

According to Li, there have been 707 claims filed since this April and 206 of these claims with an amount of 32,000 yuan ($5,016) have been compensated. It is estimated that the total compensation will exceed 100,000 yuan. 

Since compensation cannot drive away the wild boars for good, local villagers have demanded they be allowed to hunt the boars. According to the local work plan, the county plans to kill 750 wild boars by the end of 2021 to regulate the wild boar population. 

Tongjiang county has rich forest resources and is an important biological gene pool with 432 species of wild animals inhabiting the county including four first-level protected wild animals under the National List of Protected Wild Animals. 

The number of wild boars to be hunted is restricted to no more than two boars in each square kilometer and it is estimated that 10 to 20 boars will be hunted in every town across the county, said Li. "The number of boars to be hunted next year will be determined accordingly."

According to related policies, laws and regulations, it is illegal for villagers or non-governmental organizations to hunt wild boars and the hunting can only be organized by government. Besides, the hunting cannot involve tools, traps or drugs that may injure other wild animals. Without a professional hunting team, these restrictions have posed a challenge to the county. 

Li participated in a hunting organized by the county government in December 2020 and the group of 10 members or so only killed two boars in three days. A total of eight hounds were killed or injured by the boars in the action in which the team brought over 20 hounds into the mountains. 

A professional hunting team from Jiangyou city in Sichuan invited to the county to help hunt the boars killed eight boars in two and a half days recently. 

A member of the team surnamed Chen told the Global Times on Monday that the vast area of the mountains at an altitude of 1,000 meters in this area and the particular fierceness of the wild boars make their job very difficult. The well-equipped and experienced team suggested that hunts only occur when guns or hunting dogs are available since the wild boars can be very aggressive.

Tongjiang county has filed applications for six professional hunting teams this month and they expect the team can play a role in protecting local farmers' crops in the future.