RAIPUR: A member of the steering committee of project elephant under the Union environment ministry has urged Chhattisgarh govt to revise the compensation formula for crop damage caused by wild animals, arguing that the present system neither reflects the farmer’s actual loss nor helps reduce conflict between humans and wildlife.In a letter to chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai and forest minister Kedar Kashyap, Mansoor Khan said compensation should be calculated on the basis of the actual area of crop damaged in square feet, and the affected crop should be insured so that the payout is borne by insurance companies instead of the forest department alone.The steering committee member Mansoor Khan pointed out that paddy’s support price in Chhattisgarh is Rs 3,100 per quintal and one acre generally yields around 21 quintals, giving a farmer an earning of nearly Rs 65,100 per acre. Converted to square feet, this works out to around Rs 1.49 per sq ft, he said, adding that compensation should be fixed accordingly for the exact area damaged by wild animals.He said the current compensation of Rs 22,239 per hectare for wildlife-caused crop loss is inadequate. Even when converted to acre terms, it comes to around Rs 9,000 per acre, far below the earning a farmer would expect from paddy cultivation at the state-supported price, the letter said.The proposal recommends that each affected panchayat should have a five-member assessment panel comprising a forest guard, patwari, insurance company official, local volunteer and gram sevak. A forest area guide may also be included where required.According to the proposal, insurance should not be village-specific but should cover the entire affected area. The insurance amount must be paid at least 30 days before crop harvesting, and a helpline number of the insurance officer should be made public.Khan argued that a fairer compensation system would reduce anger against the forest department, encourage farmers to avoid retaliatory action, and prevent dangerous practices like chasing away wild animals or passing electric current through fields to protect crops.The letter also said that when crop loss is assessed by the patwari, the damaged area should not be reduced in the girdawari report merely because wild animals caused the damage. It said there should be no compulsion of minimum landholding, and even 33% damage in a field should qualify for compensation, provided the amount exceeds Rs 1,000.Khan said a more realistic compensation model would save government funds, improve relations between affected farmers and the forest department, and help reduce human-wildlife conflict in Chhattisgarh.The letter comes when affected villagers and farmers have raised the point, “When a herd wipes out my crop overnight, the compensation we get doesn’t even cover a fraction of what we’ve lost. If the govt calculates it based on actual damage, at least we won’t feel abandoned after putting in a season’s hard work. We don’t want conflict with wild animals, but when losses aren’t fairly compensated, desperation builds. A realistic compensation system will help farmers survive and reduce the anger that leads to risky measures in the fields,” said Sri Prakash Rathiya of Dharamjaigarh forest region in Raigarh. Forest officials said that such requests have earlier been raised by local affected farmers but although the compensations are paid on time as promised, there have been no discussion made yet to come to a conclusion in principle on the increase of relief amount, despite it being logical.
