Human-wildlife conflicts: Promises made to kin of victims remain on paper

Telangana forest officials promised additional support when kin and members of their communities staged a protest, carrying bodies of victims

Kumram Bheem Asifabad:Assurances given by Forest officials to kin of victims of man-animal conflict still remain unfulfilled.

The forest department is extending an enhanced compensation of Rs 10 lakh to kin of victims who are killed by carnivores such as tiger, elephant, sloth bear etc. The compensation was Rs 5 lakh till 2022. The State government increased it considering the requests made by family members of victims and the officials as well.

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Forest officials promised to provide a house and a job to kin of Karu Posham (55), who was trampled to death by an elephant at Kondapalli village in Penchikalpet mandal on April 4 and Alluri Shankar (50), who was also killed by the same elephant at Burepalli village in Chintalamanepalli mandal on April 23.

They gave the same assurance to parents of Pasula Nirmala (17), who was mauled to death by a tiger while she was harvesting the cotton crop at the same village on November 29 in 2020 and Sidam Vignesh, who was killed by a tiger at Digida village in Dahegaon mandal in November 11, 2020.

The officials assured this additional support when the kin and members of their communities staged a protest, carrying bodies of the victims. In some cases, they submitted a written promise stating that they would provide a house, job to one of the eligible family members of the victims in order to calm down the agitators.

“We expected that we could get some relief with the help of the housing and employment support from the forest department. We have been waiting to get a house for four years. Officials did not realise their promises so far,” Pasula Posham, the father of Nirmala, regretted.

Forest officials said they promised that they would recommend to the government to consider five acres of land, houses and jobs. It depends on the budget released by the government. The promises would be fulfilled if funds were sanctioned. However, steps would be taken to offer jobs on temporary or outsource basis to eligible kin of the victims, the officials stated.