Govt mulls hiking ex-gratia for deaths due to animal attack

Bhubaneswar: The State Forest and Environment Department looks to enhance the ex-gratia amount for human casualty caused by wild animals to Rs four lakh. A proposal in this regard will very soon be placed before the State Government, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Shiv Saran Srivastava said.

“We have decided to propose the government to increase the ex-gratia amount for all kinds of wild animal attack related deaths to Rs 4 lakh. A uniformity in compensation is needed so that there is no discontentment among people who face damage,” Srivastava told mediapersons.

Presently, the state government allows Rs 3 lakh as compensation to kin of victims in cases of wild animal attacks by elephant, tigers, boars and others but four lakh as ex gratia in cases of snake bites. While people who sustain severe injuries during animal attack get Rs 1 lakh as compensation added with free medical expenses others who get minor injuries receive Rs 5000 compensation.

Odisha experiences most number of human deaths during conflicts with elephants followed by depredation cases by wild boars, bears, crocs etc.

Reports state the state saw 128 human deaths during 2014-15 for which the government released an ex-gratia of Rs 2,61,16,100. In 2015-16 there were 98 human depredation cases while the following year 83 people lost their lives due to wild animal attacks. The government sanctioned Rs 2,51,90,800 and Rs 2,40,50,000 during 2015-16 and 2016-17 respectively as compensation.