Remove pigs from Padappai: High Court

CHENNAI: The pig menace at Padappai has come under the judicial scanner, with the Madras high court granting seven weeks for the Kancheepuram district administration to take action and file a status report in court.
The first bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar, giving interim directions on a PIL filed by a Padappai resident, directed the government pleader to file a counter affidavit and status report by June 20.The PIL filed by Yasodha Ammal of panchayat union office road in Padappai contended that there were at least 10,000 free-ranging stray pigs in the locality , and that they were carriers of various serious diseases. These pigs often chase children on streets and had a tendency to bite as well, the PIL said, adding that pigs had a very high breeding rate, with a healthy female pig having the ability to litter 20 to 30 piglets a year.These pigs act as carriers of viruses that cause swine flu and brain fever, Yasodha Ammal said in her petition. The BDO office campus itself had a large number of pigs, she said, adding that the unattended growth of pigs might lead to spread of fatal and communicable diseases.Though she had sent representations to the Kancheepuram district collector and the director of department of public health and preventive medicine, no worthwhile action has been taken, she said.
She wanted the court to direct the authorities to take action to remove the stray pigs from within the limits of Padappai village in Sriperumpudur taluk forthwith.