About 100,000 farmers will be relocated out of forest areas, where wild animals live, in Wushan County in the southwest municipality of Chongqing, official sources said.
Wushan County is located in the key region of the Three Gorges project, the largest hydroelectric project in the world, which is currently being built and will flood 632 square km of land.
Chongqing, a leading industrial and commercial hub in southwest China, has made more effort in recent years to protect wild animals, and some species, like tigers, which disappeared for years, have been found again in forests.
Since wild boars were first found in 1994, more than 10,000 such animals have been spotted in Wushan County, which is rated as one of China's poorest counties.
Wild boar is under second-class state protection in China.
Wild animals have also brought troubles to local farmers, who had 500,000 kg of food and grain eaten or destroyed last year by animals like wild boar, black bears, monkeys and antelopes.
In order to protect wild animals from angry farmers, the local government decided to relocate farmers to make room for the animals as the relocation will meanwhile help farmers shake off poverty within a short period of time, a local official said.
(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2001)
