India, Feb. 18 -- Kerala's long-running struggle with wild boar crop raids has entered a new phase of policy uncertainty after the state's Left Democratic Front government put on hold a controversial directive restricting the use of certain licensed firearms in culling operations. What initially appeared to be a technical clarification on licensing has opened a wider debate on wildlife governance, gun regulation, conservation priorities and the intensifying scale of human-wildlife conflict across the state's agrarian landscapes and beyond.

The immediate trigger was a Forest Department order stating that firearms licensed for sports or institutional purposes could not be used for wildlife culling. Only weapons licensed for crop protection...