Farmers in Rajasthan say stray bulls, wild boars, nilgai, camels and donkeys are damaging crops and making cultivation increasingly expensive.
A study across five districts found that roaming animals increased farmers’ risk of crop loss by up to 44%, while crop protection measures have doubled.
State fencing subsidies have helped some farmers, but wire barriers and electric fencing are creating new risks for chinkara, blackbuck and other wildlife.
Farmers say stricter cattle trade rules, limited shelter capacity and rising protection costs have worsened the stray animal crisis.
Ramavatar Chaudhary farms around 2.5 hectares with his two brothers in Nangal Bawla village in Rajasthan. Last year, he could not sow pearl millet on around 0.2 hectares of land because wild boars had dug up the entire field.
They also trampled the harvested pearl millet with their hooves.
“In our area, there is terror of stray bulls, wild boars and nilgai,” Ramavatar says. “They attack at night. Bulls come in groups of 90-100, boars in groups of 40-50 and nilgai in groups of 8-10.”
Once the animals enter a field, he says, they leave only after causing 70-80 per cent damage. In terms of the scale of destruction, farmers say stray bulls and wild boars have now overtaken nilgai.
Ramavatar’s neighbour Leeluram says the problem has become serious over the past decade.
“Boars that came in a herd of about 50 destroyed onion cultivation. The field was around 0.2 hectares. They uproot grown onions with their long teeth and trample the harvested ones,” he says.
In eastern Rajasthan, especially the Mewat region, about 1,600kg of wheat is produced on one bigha of land. Ramavatar says that if a farmer fails to guard the field even for a day, and a bull or boar enters it, 70-80 per cent crop destruction is almost certain.
“This area is famous across the country for onion cultivation, but it is suffering the most damage from boars,” he says.
The problem of stray animals exists across Rajasthan. Only the animals causing the damage change.
Parth Jagani, an environmentalist and organic farmer from Jaisalmer, tells Down To Earth that donkeys, camels and wild boars are a major concern across western Rajasthan. In Jalore, Nagaur and the hilly areas of southern Rajasthan, he says, many farmers are being forced to abandon farming.
In Jaisalmer and Barmer, donkeys damage gram crops during the rabi season, while camels destroy almost everything, he says.
Economist Professor Jitendra Singh of Central European University, Austria, spoke to 211 farming families in 23 villages across five districts of Rajasthan for a study on the issue. The study found that farmers’ risk of crop loss due to roaming animals increased by up to 44 per cent. At the same time, the number of precautionary measures taken to protect crops doubled.
This has increased expenditure on crop protection and made farming less profitable for many farmers.
The Rajasthan government enacted the Rajasthan Bovine Animal (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation of Temporary Migration or Export) Act in August 1995.
On March 9, 2018, the Bharatiya Janata Party government introduced an amendment Bill in the Assembly, making the export and trade of bovine animals much stricter. Under the law, taking any bovine animal outside Rajasthan to a slaughterhouse is prohibited. The definition of bovine animals includes bulls, oxen and calves, while buffaloes and their breeds are excluded.
According to the amendment, any competent authority, or any person authorised by it in writing, can seize vehicles carrying bovine animals. The person transporting them can be arrested and the vehicle can also be confiscated.
Experts say that, in recent years, trucks carrying bovine animals have been stopped by some organisations on suspicion of illegal transport. Whether the transport was legal or illegal is investigated later. In some cases, these actions have turned violent and become political issues.
Until about a decade ago, farmers sold large numbers of oxen and cows at Rajasthan’s livestock fairs to buyers from states such as Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bihar. This generated income for farmers and helped keep the bovine population under control. The livestock trade at fairs functioned as a parallel economy for farmers and reduced the problem of crop damage by bulls.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change also prepared the draft Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules in 2016. The rules were issued by the ministry in 2017.
Ramavatar says the rules are strict and involve a lengthy process.
“The seller and the buyer have to go through a long paperwork process. Therefore, farmers find it easiest to leave bovine animals in the open,” he says.
Damage caused by stray animals is also not covered under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.
Rampal Jat, national president of Kisan Mahapanchayat, tells Down To Earth that the organisation has written several times to the agriculture ministers of India and Rajasthan on the issue.
“Our demand is that compensation for damage to farming caused by wild animals and stray animals should be provided under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana,” he says. “The laws made by the government are not practical on the ground. Therefore, these laws should be amended after consultation with farmers.”
Shortly before the 2018 amendment, Rajasthan launched the Tarbandi, or fencing, scheme in 2017 to help farmers protect their fields.
Under the scheme, small and marginal farmers are given 60 per cent of the cost of fencing up to 400 metres, or a maximum of Rs 48,000. General farmers receive 50 per cent of the cost, or a maximum of Rs 40,000. For community-level fencing, the subsidy is 70 per cent of the cost, or a maximum of Rs 56,000, whichever is lower.
If farmers fence less than 400 metres, the subsidy is given on a pro-rata basis.
According to data received from the Agriculture Department, from 2021-22 to 2025-26, Rs 579 crore was given to 161,478 farmers under the scheme. During this period, 53,847,938 metres of wire were provided to farmers on subsidy for fencing.
The number of farmers benefiting from the scheme has increased each year. In 2021-22, 2,110 farmers availed themselves of the benefit. By 2025-26, this number had risen to 52,485.
The rising demand for fencing reflects the scale of the problem facing farmers.
Apart from regular fencing, some farmers have also started installing low-voltage electric wires in their fields. As a result, large numbers of animals and people are being injured.
Recently, the Rajasthan Animal Welfare Board placed the use of electric current in field fencing, or the use of sharp and blade-like wires, in the category of serious offences. The board said that if an animal or bird is injured or killed because of electric current, the landowner concerned will be held responsible.
Another problem has emerged around fencing.
Large numbers of chinkara and blackbuck, which have long lived in fields and open grasslands in the region, are being killed as fencing spreads. Fencing is being carried out not only around fields, but also by the Forest Department within its boundaries. Solar parks are also fenced with wire barriers.
Many of the areas where fencing is taking place are habitats of deer. At the same time, the number of dogs in the region has also increased significantly over the past few decades.
Dogs chase deer, which then become entangled in the wires and die. Areas that once belonged to deer are now occupied by cows, bulls, boars and dogs. Deer are easy prey, but besides being hunted, they are also dying after getting trapped in fencing wires.
Neither society nor the administration is taking responsibility for these deaths, local residents say.
Farmers from Tursipura, Pipraun and Harjoopura villages in Dholpur district found a local solution to the problem of stray bulls.
Neeraj Sharma, a young sharecropper, tells Down To Earth: “More than 500-700 cows and bulls roam freely in our three panchayats. The number of nilgai and boars cannot be counted. Therefore, 10 young farmers from all three panchayats together opened a temporary cow shelter on a vacant piece of land during the rabi season.”
Arrangements for fodder and water were made through donations collected from villagers. The shelter ran from December to March, until the harvest was completed.
Suraj Bhan Thakur, from the same village, says the initiative helped protect cultivation across 1,266 hectares in the three panchayats.
However, farmers say this is only a temporary solution. In villages where cow shelters exist, the number of stray bovine animals is often so high that it is not possible to care for all of them.
Mukesh Chaudhary of Pehal village in Mundawar tehsil says that when a farmer goes to leave a cow at a shelter, he is asked to pay up to Rs 2,000 for fodder and water.
Most farmers cannot afford this amount, so they leave their bovine animals in the open, he says.
Farmers say bulls and wild boars have also found ways around government-supported fencing. The leader of a group of bulls, along with one or two others, uproots the poles installed for fencing wires, creating space for the rest of the animals to enter the field. Wild boars do the same.
Ramavatar says fencing has helped, but animals are getting used to it.
“Fencing did help, but animals have now become accustomed to it, so fencing too is beginning to seem inadequate,” he says. “Farmers should adopt traditional methods such as planting cactus around fields according to the local climate. This may provide some relief.”
This article is part of the series Conflict in the Backyard. A version of it was published in the cover story, Conflict in the Backyard, in the May 16-31, 2026 print issue of Down To Earth.