May 3: There are ways to handle “public display of affection”, the most common irritant in parks. Littering, another nuisance, can also be reined in.

But what can one do when a park, built in the memory of a renowned poet, is besieged by snorting, grunting, intruders? Pigs, we mean.

Well, that’s the sort of crisis Jorhat’s showpiece Gonesh Gogoi Kabita Kanon is going through.

Located beside another landmark — the pioneering departmental store Doss & Co — Gonesh Gogoi Kabita Kanon is under the threat of being turned into a sty, thanks to a team of pigs inhabiting the abandoned Statfed building across the street.

But it seems the pigs are here on invitation.

The chowkidar of the building, Babulal, started the piggery with 50 pigs, to earn a few extra bucks.

“I have hardly anything to do here. With so much land lying unused, I started the piggery,” he explained.

The Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad has asked the district administration to take necessary steps to shift the piggery immediately.

“It will not take long for the pigs to enter the park and this will be the ultimate disrespect to the renowned poet of yesteryears,” said Shiva Kalita, the general secretary of the Jorhat unit of the AJYCP.

Gonesh Gogoi Kabita Kanon hosts musical shows every Saturday. This patch of green is also the favourite haunt of Jorhatians every weekend, especially on Saturday evenings, when the shows are held.

“But with pigs strolling the park, no one will want to visit the park anymore,” the student leader said.

The AJYCP said pigs from the farm stray onto the road and enter the park in search of food. “And it is not possible for a lone guard to keep so many pigs in check,” Kalita said.

A few days back, a number of pigs entered the park and destroyed the immaculate flowerbeds.

The students’ organisation also alleged that Babulal has started selling pork from his piggery.

“The guard on most occasions sells pork from a roadside tent — polluting the atmosphere near the park,” he said.

The Jorhat police station is hardly 100 metres from the piggery, but the police are yet to take any action, said the students.

“The police are a mere spectator to this ugly sight. We simply fail to understand to why the police have allowed someone to open a piggery in such a location?” another AJYCP leader asked.