Fund crunch hits payment of compensation

KOZHIKODE: Even as the state government has made big-ticket plans to mitigate

human wildlife

conflict, hundreds of farmers in

Wayanad

are yet to be paid even meagre amounts of compensation due to them.

According to sources, the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary authorities have exhausted its Rs 60 lakh fund for providing compensation during this fiscal. Around 400 claims are yet to be processed.
The department has so far received 697 applications for compensation for losses suffered on account of man-animal conflict. The Rs 60 lakh compensation were claims ranging from injury (11), damage to house (13), cattle loss (81) and crop damage(569). WWS officials said they would require another Rs 30 lakh to clear all the pending wildlife compensation claims this fiscal.

Environmental activists said the authorities are interested in implementing only adhoc measures and unscientific strategies. Long-term and sustainable measures like voluntary relocation of people from forest settlements, replacing the mono-culture plantations with natural forests and setting up community-based participatory projects in the grassroots-level and restoration of crucial elephant corridors have not been taken up in earnest yet.

“The authorities are still focusing on unscientific strategies which have failed to yield any result. The unscientific digging of elephant-proof trenches and stone walls have proved counterproductive by causing further fragmentation of habitat. Instead, the government should earmark atleast 30% of the announced fund of Rs 100 crore for voluntary relocation of people from wildlife habitats,” said

N Badusha

, president of Wayanad Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithi.

He said human-animal conflict in Wayanad can be significantly reduced if the government implements voluntary relocation project in the 14 settlements whose inhabitants have expressed willingness to move out.


“But unfortunately, the state government had recently taken back even the Rs 18 crore fund allotted by the central government. Once we are able to create inviolate space for wildlife in the sanctuary, the conflict in the fringes will decrease,” he added. Badusha said that the indiscriminate and unscientifically dug elephantproof trenches (EPT) mostly under MNREGS scheme are even cutting through critical elephant corridors in the district. The focus should be on implementing communitybased and participatory mechanisms to address the human wildlife conflict, he said.


“The top-down model in project implementation without considering the local-level needs have contributed to failure . Farmers should be encouraged to take over the responsibility of guarding their crops with government compensating for it,” Badusha added.