Pune: State govt has made it mandatory for the forest department to compensate human-wildlife conflict affected individuals within 30 days of application.
This has been effective since February 1 this year as part of the rules framed under the Maharashtra Payment of Compensation for Loss, Injury, or Damage caused by Wild Animals Act, 2023, notified on August 14 last year.Under the said rule, payment of compensation for affected individuals is mandatory within 30 days of receipt of completed application on the forest department’s website.
In its notification, the state govt mentioned that no application shall be rejected without proper scrutinization by the department.
If an applicant is not compensated within 30 days, the officer responsible for the delay will pay interest from his salary to the individual.
This has been done to prevent mishandling of any situation that might impact the applicant’s financial stability, said department officials.
As per the defined procedure, an intimation about the loss of human life shall be given in writing by any person to the nearest forest guard. The forest guard shall confirm the incident, gather information and report to the forester and range forest officer concerned.
The provision has been made for loss of human life, loss of domestic animals, loss of crops or fruit trees due to attack by wild animals. Officials also stated that no stark case of mismanagement has occurred so far, which led to this decision.
“The rule was made to streamline the process. Through the years, we have not observed any case of mismanagement or late payment of compensation. It is done immediately from our end to avoid any delay,” said NR Praveen, chief conservator of forest.
As human-wildlife conflicts increase in the state, this comes as a welcome step for many farmers whose farms and households lie in conflict regions.
Over the years, Junnar has emerged as a primary centre of man-animal conflict. The forest department has started awareness programmes to ensure fewer number of such incidents.
In Pune, Bhor, Junnar and Solapur districts, a total of Rs 1.13 crore was paid as compensation in 2018-2019. In 2019-2020, Rs 1.4 crore rupees was awarded. In 2020-21, Rs 2.69 crore was awarded as compensation.
In 2021-2022, Rs 2.9 crore was paid as compensation. For 2022-23 and from April 23 to September 2023, Rs 2.2 crore was awarded to individuals as compensation for wildlife attacks.

We also published the following articles recently