Odisha Revises Compensation For Life & Property Loss in Man-Animal Conflict

Bhubaneswar: The State government of Odisha upped the amount of compensation being provided to the afflicted populace on May 3 in an effort to quell mounting public outrage over the loss of life and property in the attack by wild animals in the state.

CM Naveen Patnaik gave his approval to a plan to enhance the amount of compensation given to victims of wild animal attacks.

According to the order, compensation for fatalities brought on by wild animal assault has increased from 4 lakh to 6 lakh rupees.

Similar to that, more assistance will now be given in the event of permanent injury. When a handicap is less than 60%, the amount of support has been increased from 1 lakh to 1.50 lakh, and when a disability is greater than 60%, the amount of assistance has been raised to 2.50 lakh.

Typically, 5000 was paid upfront for temporary injury. The cost of treatment in government hospitals is now free, and an additional 10,000 will be given if hospitalisation is necessary for longer than a week.

The assistance has also been increased in case of the death of cattle. The amount of assistance in case of death of a cow or buffalo has been increased to ₹37,500 and in case of death of a bullock, it has been raised to ₹32,000. Earlier it was ₹5000. In case of the death of a calf, ₹5000 will be paid.

Compensation money for the deaths of goats and sheep has been upped from 2000 to 4,000. Farmers will now receive 25,000 per acre instead of the previous figure of 12,000 in the event of cash crops, while the help for crop loss has doubled from 10,000 to 20,000 per acre in the case of crop damage.

Similarly, if a house is partially damaged, the amount of help has increased from 2000 to 10,000, and if it is fully destroyed, the Biju Pucca Ghar housing unit and an additional 20,000 will be paid to the affected people. Previously, the housing loss compensation was only worth 10,000.

The majority—322 deaths—of the 1,570 people were killed by elephant attacks in the nation in the three years between 2019–20 and 2021–2022 were recorded from Odisha, followed by 291 from Jharkhand. From the perspective of combat-related deaths of people, the last year (2022-23) was the worst. Elephants have killed as many as 146 people by trampling them to death.