A plague of rabbits is devastating crops and community relations in France, where lawsuits are flying as farmers, hunters and landowners blame each other for failing to keep the population in check.

Amid mounting anger and destruction on a scale unknown for 30 years, cereal farmers are being advised to sue neighbours who allow wild rabbits to proliferate. In one case that sparked controversy this month, a hunter was ordered to pay €1,439 (£1,134) in damages to two farmers after a court ruled that he had not shot enough rabbits in his woods.

French internet sites are full of similar tales. The owner of a fallow field in northern France poured out his woes on one site after a neighbouring farm demanded €3,000 in compensation for the loss of 2,000 lettuces, 1.5 tonnes (3,300lb) of beet-root and 800kg (1,760lb) of carrots. “I have been in a black mood since Saturday morning,” he said.

Under French law, landowners have a civil responsibility to prevent an “excess number” of rabbits on their property. The issue is of acute concern in northeastern France, where the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) population has exploded in the past two years, devastating thousands of acres of land at a rate of up to 500 grammes per rabbit per day.

Olivier Geer-a farmers’ leader in the département of Aisne, said: “The damage has doubled in that time. And for farmers, the cost c a n range from €80 an acre to €1,000.”

One reason for the explosion is growing resistance to myxo-matosis, the viral disease introduced into France in 1952. A second explanation is the weather last summer, when there was enough rain to provide an abundance of food during the reproductive season but not enough to drown the litters. But farmers say the main cause is an increasingly slipshod approach to land management. Public authorities are blamed for allowing rabbits to multiply alongside rivers, roads and railways, where they have curtailed a longstanding policy of regular culls.

Along the North Canal, for example, farmers are embroiled in a fierce legal battle with Voies Navigables de France amid claims that it has failed to prevent rabbits from eating their rapeseed. Hubert Debaene, a farmer, said: “On the banks, the brambles are high and the bushes haven’t been cut for years.”

Mr Geerhaert said private landowners were no better. “Many do nothing about the rabbits on their land these days. When the neighbouring farmer asks for compensation, they ask their insurance firm to pay. The insurance usually pays out for one or two years, but when the same thing happens for the third year running, it says no. Then the case often ends up in court.”

Many of France’s private woods and forests are used for hunting. But Mr Geerhaert said that contemporary hunters were ignoring the rabbits that they used to stew with red wine and herbes de Provence. “They prefer bigger game these days,” he said. “We need to persuade them to be a bit more assiduous.”

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