Bengaluru:  In some good news for the villagers living in the periphery of wildlife sanctuaries, Karnataka Minister for Forest and Ecology Anand Singh said that the Government was thinking to increase the compensation for human deaths in wild animal attacks to Rs. 10 lakh. 

The family of victims who are mauled by wild animals would get Rs. 10 lakh compensation and also, the families will get Rs. 5,000 per month as compensation for five years, the Minister told the Assembly. 

It was a long pending demand from the victims’ families, as per the forest officials. The Government is also actively considering the hike of the relief amount for those who become physically challenged due to wild animal attack and also those who suffered crop loss, he added. 

The issue was raised by MLAs A.T. Ramaswamy, M.P. Appachu Ranjan, H.K. Kumaraswamy Srinivas Gowda and others and the MLAs said that the compensation offered was paltry. 

At present, the State gives a compensation of Rs. 7.5 lakh to those who have been killed in wild animal attacks and a    monthly relief of Rs. 2,000 to the victim’s family. 

The most common damage caused by wildlife is the destruction of crops by elephants, deer, antelopes, wild boars and other wildlife. This results in economic and psychological distress among farmers. In retaliation, wild animals are poisoned or left injured through crude devices. Elephant-related conflict alone has damaged hundreds of acres of crops in their constituencies, the MLAs said. 

Forest officials stated that the Government should have done more to resolve the man-animal conflict issue rather than raising the compensation, as it wouldn’t solve any problems.

Meanwhile, the Legislative Council saw commotion when Congress MLC P.R. Ramesh was not satisfied with Minister Anand Singh’s reply to a query. During the question hour, Ramesh sought details of forest land spread across the State and encroachments. 

While the Minister’s response had details of forest land in all 30 districts, details related to encroachments were provided only for 23 districts.

“This is not the way a Minister should respond to a member’s query. I will move a privilege motion against this,” Ramesh said, as several other Opposition members joined him. Chairman K. Prathapachandra Shetty intervened and withheld the question.

Even when Singh replied for another query by Congress MLC from Kodagu Veena Achaiah related to compensation amounts for human deaths caused by wild animals, members attacked him saying he had no proper information.