KOZHIKODE : Forest Minister A K Saseendran on Thursday came out against the statement of Union Minister for Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav, that the chief wildlife warden has adequate powers to quell wildlife attacks. “His statement contradicts facts,” Saseendran said in a press release.
“As per the Union minister, the chief wildlife warden has the authority to shoot any aggressive wild animal that enters inhabited areas according to Section 11 of the Wildlife Protection Act. The Union minister also said that the Central government pays the compensation for wildlife attacks in the state, and the money has been allocated from the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act (CAMPA) fund for compensation. The Union minister’s statements on these two issues are politically motivated,” Saseendran said.
“Under the Wildlife Protection Act, the chief wildlife warden may order the killing of a wild animal which poses a danger to humans in certain circumstances only if he is satisfied that it is not possible to capture, drug or relocate the animal. The law also states that the wild animal should be kept in captivity only if it cannot be released into the forest,” Saseendran said.
His statement regarding the allocation of funds for compensation in case of a wildlife attack is misleading. According to the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act (CAMPA) of 2016, CAMPA funds can be used for compensatory afforestation, additional compensatory afforestation, penal compensatory afforestation, net present value etc.
According to the CAMPA Fund Rules issued by the Centre in 2018, there is no provision to use Central funds to compensate for wildlife attacks, he said.
Yadav claimed that Rs 15.8 crore has been allocated to the State for various purposes including compensation. But only Rs 12.73 crore was sanctioned in eight schemes like Project Elephant, Project Tiger and Integrated Development for Wildlife Habitat.
Of these, only Rs 80 lakh has been sanctioned by the Centre for providing compensation. Out of this, only Rs 7.2 lakh was available from Central allocation for Wayanad. This year the compensation was allocated from the State budget,” stated the press release.