Authorities on Friday said that a planned territory-wide ban on feeding wild animals is to come into effect on December 31.

Currently, the Wild Animals Protection Ordinance only outlaws feeding animals at Lion Rock Country Park, Kam Shan Country Park, Shing Mun Country Park and parts of Tai Mo Shan Country Park and Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve.

But concerns about wild boars roaming around urban areas have prompted officials to expand the ban to the whole of Hong Kong.

"To effectively control wild pig nuisance, apart from conducting capture and humane dispatch operations to reduce the number of wild pigs at nuisance sites, the government also needs to curb wild pig feeding activities, thereby reducing the incentives that attract wild pigs to linger in urban areas and near residential areas," said the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.

The expansion of the ban has now been gazetted and the move will be put to Legco for negative vetting on November 9.