Higher compensation to tiger attack victims helps in tiger conservation in TS

Adilabad: The state government's increase in compensation for the victims/families of human–animal conflicts is likely to strengthen the ongoing efforts for tiger conservation by the Telangana forest department.

The Congress government, in one of its first acts after assuming power, increased the compensation to Rs 10 lakh from Rs 5 lakh for the kin of the deceased in incidents of tiger attacks on humans, and also other victims of animal conflict. It also increased compensation for the cattle owners who lost their cattle in such attacks.

For many years now, the Maharashtra government has been giving Rs 10 lakh as compensation to the kin of the victims of the human-animal conflict there. Victim families and forest officials had been urging the BRS government to increase the ‘compensation’ on par with Maharashtra. These did not elicit a positive response.

With the new government in power, forest and environment minister Konda Surekha signed her first order, increasing the compensation to victims of tiger attacks.

Three persons were killed and several cattle grazers suffered injuries in many incidents of tiger attacks in the erstwhile Adilabad district in the last two years.

Adilabad FRO, Gulab Singh, said the decision to increase the compensation to Rs 10 lakh from Rs 5 lakh would strengthen the efforts for tiger conservation. Compensation has also been increased for the owners of cattle killed in tiger attacks, he noted. 

Notably, the Adilabad forest department recently submitted a tiger conservation plan to the National Tiger Conservation Authority and sought approval of a budget to promote tiger conservation. This was done in the wake of tigers' migration to the Adilabad district from the Tippeshwar Tiger Reserve of Maharashtra by crossing River Penganga.