Forest Minister A.K. Saseendran has alleged that Union Minister for Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MOEFCC) Bhupender Yadav’s statements on the Wildlife Protection Act are baseless and contradictory.
Addressing the media here on Thursday, Mr. Yadav had said that the Chief Wildlife Warden was empowered to trap, catch, and, if necessary, shoot problematic wildlife according to Section 11 of the Act, the Union government was giving an ex gratia of ₹10 lakh to the kin of victims, and the ex gratia could be allocated from the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA). It was suspected that such statements were made with political intentions, Mr. Saseendran said.
Many norms of the Act as well as the standard operating procedures, guidelines and advisories issued by the Central government and its agencies from time to time to handle problematic tigers and elephants were not practical and made the Act more rigid, Mr. Saseendran said.
As per the Act, a tiger could not be shot dead unless it was a habitual man-eater, Mr. Saseendran said. The CAMPA funds could be utilised only for afforestation projects such as compensatory afforestation and net present value and penal afforestation activities, according to the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act 2016. The amount could not be utilised for disbursing ex gratia or compensation to the kin of those killed in wildlife attacks, the Minister said.
Hence, the statements of the Union Minister were baseless, Mr. Saseendran said. Mr. Yadav had said that the MOEFCC had allocated ₹15.8 crore for various activities, including disbursing compensation, but the Ministry had granted only ₹12.73 core so far this year, Mr. Saseendran added. The government had submitted a proposal in 2022 for a comprehensive project worth ₹620 core to mitigate man-animal conflict in the State. But the ministry replied that it could not grant such a huge amount and that the amount be met from the State government fund, Mr. Saseendran added.
