The Department of Agriculture has allocated 2 million euros and has doubled the number of technicians to try to stop the proliferation of rabbits in the Lleida plain, a plague that to this day remains uncontrolled. The reinforcement has been presented in Tàrrega, where the minister Òscar Ordeig has admitted that the situation overflows the local scope.
"We have a country problem" - Òscar Ordeig, councillor of Agriculture
The head of the department has assured that the Government will dedicate the personnel, efforts and time that are necessary to resolve it. He has also attributed the current scenario to an imbalance in ecosystemic balances that has favored the proliferation of certain species and has defended that it is necessary to act regularly, intensively and throughout the year to recover the balance.
Reinforcement of the operation in the regions of Lleida
In Lleida, it will go from 6 specialists to 12 for the intensive control of rabbits. The device will be expanded with professionals hired by Tragsa and with new additions to the department's staff. In Catalonia as a whole, the Government mobilizes 50 professionals to combat the plague.
The operation in the plain of Lleida will have three drone teams with thermal cameras, in addition to cages, night vision scopes, pickup vehicles, rifles and ammunition. In the Lleida regions, the teams have the capacity for about 8 control actions per week and currently cull between 1,500 and 2,000 rabbits each week.
Nine months of plan and more than 156,000 captures
The rabbit population control plan in the Lleida plain was activated 9 months ago. Since then, 156,140 rabbits have been captured. Of that figure, 11,814 were culled in 62 actions by the administration.
Agriculture maintains that the density of rabbits has gone from 202 individuals per km² to 112 on average. The reduction stands between 30% and 44% in la Segarra, el Pla d Urgell, l Urgell, el Segrià and les Garrigues. Despite that decrease, the department admits that the problem remains open and that it will be necessary to maintain pressure on the territory.
Less response time and new aid in April
The Generalitat has a digital platform for property owners to report damages caused by rabbits. The response time to these notices has been reduced from 21 to 13 days and the administration has handled 338 communications.
The department foresees resolving in April aid of more than 2 million euros to compensate expenses in tree protectors, capture devices, night vision scopes, ammunition and contracting of private game control services. In parallel, Agriculture has given more than 40 15-hour training sessions to improve the efficiency of captures, sessions that have allowed enabling more than 1,200 people. The theoretical part is now also offered in online format after the sector's request.
With this new reinforcement, the Govern seeks to contain an overpopulation that continues to hit the plain of Lleida and that the department itself considers a structural problem. The immediate objective is to sustain intensive actions on the ground while an attempt is made to stably reduce the density of animals in the most affected regions.