Alex Trelinski
A PLAGUE of wild boars has prompted a group of Alicante province mayors to demand an urgent meeting with the regional Environment Ministry.
A meeting of civic leaders from the Marina Alta region on Monday has called for an end to the boar ‘problem’ that is destroying crops and is forcing residents to ‘barricade’ themselves into their homes at night.
They agreed to submit proposed changes to Valencian laws on the hunting and control of wild boars as they believe hunters offer the best solution to the problem.
The mayors met at Els Poblets and agreed on a united front to address the issue.
Els Poblets mayor, Jose Luis Mas, said: “Residents are having to change their times as to when they go out for a walk because of wild boars roaming the area.”
He described the Girona riverbed as a ‘motorway’ of boars down to the beach and said he received weekly reports of dead boar sightings in the ditch alongside the road to Denia.
Mayor of neighbouring El Verger, Basili Salort, confirmed that residents are demanding action because ‘it is too dangerous to go walking at night’.
It’s believed that one of the most concentrated boar areas is Pego Marsh with problems stretching back some two decades after forest fires caused the boars to move, with an estimated 6,000 sleeping there.
Boars have travelled greater distances and gained more confidence to mingle around urban areas as well as becoming more sophisticated in their diet.
“There were times when boars didn’t eat oranges and now they eat them all, as well as anything that farmers plant, “ said Beniarbeig mayor, Juan Mas.
His Javea counterpart, Rosa Cardona, warned that the destruction of fences and orchards had reached a tipping point.
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