House panel pitches for uniform ex-gratia

KOLKATA: A parliamentary committee has suggested a uniform pan-india compensation package for victims of human-animal conflict, seeking to remove the disparity in payments made to the families of victims across states.

On average, nearly 500 people are killed by elephants alone every year across the country. Between 2016 and 2018, at least 135 people were killed by tigers. In addition,cattle and crops are lost in raids by wild animals in areas of human habitation.

Millions of rupees are spent every year to compensate victims, who lose their lives and property.

“The committee recommends that the ministry of environment, forest and climate change must take initiative to carry out a comprehensive review of the compensation being provided in different states and frame guidelines to align the compensation at an equivalent and realistic level so that the affected persons are suitably compensated for the loss suffered by them equitably all over the country,” the committee said in a report submitted to the Rajya Sabha on March 6.

The 31-member parliamentary standing committee on science & technology, environment, forests and climate change is headed by former Union minister Jairam Ramesh. At present, the Union government provides some financial assistance to states under various centrallysponsored schemes. An ex-gratia relief of ~5 lakh is allocated for a victim’s family in case of death under central schemes.

“While on one hand, the cost of crops and livestock varies from state to state, the economic status of states also varies and hence the disparity. But as this is a national issue and forest and wildlife come under the concurrent list, the Union government should play a greater role when it comes to compensation instead of putting the burden on the states. This is a positive approach, which has been suggested as earlier reports show that thousands of acres of croplands are destroyed by herbivores and nearly one–third of the prey base of carnivores in India comprise cattle. The Centre should also think of introducing insurance of crops and cattle against such conflicts,” said Mahesh Rangarajan, former head of India’s elephant task force. States provide enhanced ex-gratia relief as per their own norms. But there is wide disparity between the compensation provided by the states, experts said.

“The amount varies from state to state. Some states, like Odisha pay ~4 lakh for humans getting killed whereas states like Maharashtra pay even ~15 lakh. In order to compensate the damage caused to the crops by wild animals, the union environment and forest ministry has brought this loss under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Bima Yojana,” the committee stated in its report.

“This is a very good suggestion. This would bring some parity in the compensation packages. For the sake of conservation, the Centre should provide funds to the states which find it difficult to pay the victims when crops are damaged,” said P Vyas, former head of the forest department and chief wildlife warden of West Bengal.

THE CENTRE PROVIDES FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO STATES UNDER VARIOUS SCHEMES. ~5L IS ALLOCATED FOR VICTIM’S FAMILY