The Supreme Court has asked the Davangere City Corporation Commissioner to inform about steps taken for the rehabilitation of three nomadic tribes viz Korama, Korava and Koracha, which have been involved in pig rearing as their primary avocation.
The Commissioner had approached the top court after the Karnataka High Court saddled the Commissioner of Davangere City Corporation with the cost of about 500 to 600 pigs, which were ordered to be re-located to hill areas of Chitradurga, following a huge nuisance caused by them. The top court had in September 2019 stayed the order related to the imposition of cost.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abhay S Oka, after hearing advocate Sanjay M Nuli and senior advocate Anitha Shenoy for Commissioner and an NGO respectively, directed the Commissioner to file an affidavit within four weeks.
"We call upon the appellant to file an affidavit setting forth the steps taken for rehabilitation of these communities so that the public fund which is spent for their benefit is meaningful," the bench said.
An order was issued on October 26, 2018 to catch the stray pigs and re-locate those due to fear of an outbreak of deadly diseases, such as Salmonellosis, Ring Worm, Hepatitis-E, H1N1, Swine flu, Brucellosis, Toxoplasmosis, Tuberculosis, Anthrax, Malaria, Dengue. Notably, the city has earned the notoriety of being “pig capital” of the state.
'Akhila Karnataka Kuluva Maha Sangha', on whose plea the HC had passed its orders on April 22, 2019, contended that three nomadic tribes viz Korama, Korava and Koracha which have been involved in pig-rearing as their avocation and under the garb of the order their pigs have been taken away to another municipality almost 60 km away.
These pigs were given to these communities in pursuance to a budgetary allocation and adequate measures must be taken for the benefit of these nomadic tribes so that pigs allocated to them can be reared, it was submitted.
The bench noted that the office order in 2018 was issued based on public representations of nuisance arising from stray pigs and the concerned officers being asked to catch the pigs and shift them outside the town limits.
"We at least find a little reason to doubt this order," the bench said.
The court modified September 30, 2019 order, while also noting that the office order was related to stray pigs only.
The corporation has received several complaints that the stray pigs have damaged the city’s solid waste management, sewer lines, waste bins, sanitary infrastructure, drinking water supply lines, underground cables etc.