thiruvananthapuram villagers living on forest fringes in vithura panchayat are facing widespread and persistent attacks by wild animals the villagers cited the rampant growth of acacia trees planted by the forest department years ago as the reason for the wildlife attack as it prevents animals from getting food and resultantly they move to settlements for food the people in bonacaud vithura chennanpara peppara and anappara are facing serious threats from wild elephants tigers pigs buffalo deer etc the cultivation in these regions has become a nightmare for them as wild animals damage their cropsthe whole area is surrounded by acacia trees planted by the forest department in 2014 for meeting pulpwood obligations since they are not part of the natural forests the excess growth of these plants led to the destruction of grass reed and other plants naturally pigs buffalo deer etc have lost their feed and they started coming to the villages for food and the prey animals follow them in search of food said ward member of the area memala vijayanaccording to villagers the acacia trees have grown exponentially and limiting its growth or eliminating them completely is not possible last week the forest department had held a meeting with the villagers to address the issues faced by them in the meeting we had told the forest department to make trenches around our habitat to save us from wildlife attacks they promised us of considering the request but nothing has been done after that said vijayanthe residents also complained that the acacia plants draw considerable water and it causes water shortage in the area even during summer our ponds and wells used to have water nowadays the water level in the wells have come down drastically in summer we face acute shortage of drinking water even the level of water in peppara dam has come down said a resident of peppara selvaraj mthe villagers have urged the government to find a solution to the threat posed by acacia trees and also demanded compensation for the damages caused due to the planting of acacia in their area