Report of the Tiger Task Force - PRS

More documents

Recommendations

Info

TIGER TASK FORCE REPORT JOINING THE DOTS ■SUMMARY OF COMPENSATION SYSTEMS IN VARIOUS STATESState Crop damage (Rs) Livestock (Rs) Human deaths, Loss of house,permanent disability, other propertyinjuries (Rs)(Rs)Andhra Pradesh At par with natural Market value Upto 20,000 At par with naturalcalamities or riotscalamities or riotsAssam — — 20,000 —Bihar 500 per acre — 6,000-20,000 200-1,000Gujarat 250-5,000 — 25,000-100,000 —Jharkhand 2,500 per hectare 500-3,000 33,333-100,000 1,000-10,000Karnataka 2,000 per acre — 25,000-100,000 5,000Madhya Pradesh — 5,000 10,000-50,000 —Maharashtra — 3,000-9,000 (or 75% of 50,000-200,000 —(market value, whicheveris less)Meghalaya 3,750-7,500 per hectare 100-1,500 30,000-100,000 5,000-10,000Orissa 1,000 per acre — 2,000-100,000 2,000-3,500Tamil Nadu Upto 15,000 per acre — 20,000-100,000 5,000Uttar Pradesh 150-2,500 per acre — 5,000-50,000 400-3,000West Bengal 2,500 per acre 70-450 5,000-20,000 500-1,000Source: H S Pabla, 2005, The Mantra for Man-animal Coexistence, mimeorapid survey conducted in Noradehi, Raisen andVidisha forest divisions in Madhya Pradesh inSeptember 2002 to assess crop damage, found thesituation serious. 5 Data from Noradehi showedfarmers lost as much as 30 per cent of their paddycrop, 10 per cent of the wheat crop and 40 per cent ofthe pulse (gram) crop in villages located inside thesanctuary. But villages on the outskirts also sufferedequally. A village two km from the forest boundarylost 10 per cent of its paddy crop and 25 per cent ofits gram crop.The study assessed the average crop damage atRs 1,067 per ha per year in the sample villages,which comes to between 10-20 per cent of the totalyield. On the basis of the human population andcultivated area of 214 villages situated within fivekm of protected area boundaries, and the crop lossassessed in the sample villages, the total loss to thestate has been estimated at Rs 628 crore — Rs 94crore as direct loss and Rs 534 crore as the cost ofprotection in the form of labour and material. “Thefigures are rather crude, but the estimation helps tounderstand the enormity of the problem. It is obviousthat the actual damage to crops, coupled with theopportunity cost of protecting the crops is so highthat it deserves serious attention. Equally serious isthe quality of life of people of the vulnerable villages,who spend close to 100-200 nights, year after year,guarding their crops from wild depredators,” saysPabla 6 (see table: Summary of compensation systemsin various states).The case of the Bhadra tiger reserve, Karnataka,has been well documented by M D Madhusudan.Covering an area of 495 sq km, Bhadra is located inthe foothills of the Western Ghats and has 26 villageson the fringe, with 6,774 families. Livestock killingby large predators has had a significant impact oncattle population in Bhadra. The livestock kill in thefive sample villages covered by the study was 219.Compensation was sought in over half the instances.Of 71 applications filed for compensation, only 15were accepted and compensated for Rs 17,250.Compensations awarded by the forest departmentwere three per cent of the overall loss villagerssustained from livestock depredation, and five percent of the loss for which villagers filed claims. 7In terms of crop damage, villagers near Bhadralost 11 per cent of the monetary value of their annualproduction. The annual loss per family amounted toRs 5,100, or 30 per cent of the average annualhousehold income in the region. Fourteeen per centof those who suffered losses said they did not file forclaim because of the lengthy bureaucratic process —it takes 77 days to fully process an application forcrop loss compensation. Even so, 69 per cent ofrespondents in village surveys wanted thecompensation programme to continue despite thefact that it undervalued losses, as long as the processwas made quicker and less bureaucratic (see table:Bhadra crop compensation processing time).The difficulty of access to forest offices and nonavailabilityof concerned staff make the seeminglyThe way ahead 119
■ JOINING THE DOTS TIGER TASK FORCE REPORTBHADRA CROP COMPENSATION PROCESSING TIMEVillage Total compensation per cent Time takento total loss claimed(days)Hipla 4 196Karvaani 0Kesave 5 172Maadla 5 181Muthodi 5Overall 5 183Source: M D Madhusudan 2003, Liviing amidst large wildlife: livestock andcrop depredation by large mammals in the interior villges of Bhadra tigerreserve, south India, Springersimple act of filing a compensation claim atroublesome task. The requirement to producedocuments for land rights to support claims oflivestock has ensured that none of the livestock killsin Karvaani, inside Bhadra, have been compensatedto date. Similarly, landless families have had littlesuccess in obtaining compensation in livestock kills.The filing and follow-up of compensation claims alsorequire significant financial investment (travel toforest offices) on the part of claimants.Finally, compensations, even if awarded, offsetonly a miniscule part of the loss sustained by thevictim. 8As a policy, compensation does recognise andaddress the monetary aspect but the process frompolicy to action needs review. The procedure forawarding compensations needs to be more realisticand responsive if it is to help in assuaging conflicts.The Project Tiger directorate has collected dataon compensation park managers in different reserveshave paid up (see graph: Compensation tiger reserveshave paid till 2000). This data is still being compiled,but what is already evident is that morecompensation, relatively, is paid to villages innaxalite-infested park areas than in others. If this isindeed correct, it reveals the necessity, wheretensions are higher, of disbursing claims forcompensation as fast as possible. It clearly alsoshows the need to ensure that disbursal ofcompensation claims is done by park managersthemselves, so that hostility is reduced.It is Corbett, considered a better managedreserve, which has disbursed the largestcompensation amounts.EcodevelopmentThere have been two planned experiments whichattempted to resolve tensions along the fringes ofparks in India. Both have used the concept ofecodevelopment. The first was called the ForestryResearch Education and Extension Project (FREEP).Ecodevelopment was a project component in it and itwas implemented in two national parks — theKalakad-Mundanthurai tiger reserve, Tamil Naduand the Great Himalayan National Park, HimachalPradesh. Since 1991, the Union government hadtried to run a centrally-funded ecodevelopmentproject in several protected areas, on a less ambitiousscale. The Forestry Research Education andExtension Project began in 1994. It was planned to bethe precursor to the much larger, more elaborate andmore ambitious India Ecodevelopment Project (IEDP)COMPENSATION PAID BY TIGER RESERVES FROM INCEPTION TILL 200270.0060.00Compensation (in Rs lakh)50.0040.0030.0020.0010.000.00ValmikiCorbettPalamauSource: Project Tiger directorateSundarbansRanthambhoreKanhaNagarjuna SagarDudhwaBuxabandipurMelghatSimlipalManasBhadraSariskaName of tiger reserveKMTRPench (Mharashtra)IndravatiDamphaSatpuraBandhavgarhTadobaNamdaphaPannaPeriyar120 The way ahead
Page 2 and 3:
THE REPORT OF THE TIGER TASK FORCEJ
Page 4 and 5:
ContentsIntroductionExecutive summa
Page 6 and 7:
IntroductionThe Tiger Task Force wa
Page 8 and 9:
TIGER TASK FORCE REPORT JOINING THE
Page 10 and 11:
Page 13:
■ JOINING THE DOTS TIGER TASK FOR
Page 16:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41:
Page 44 and 45:
Page 46 and 47:
Page 52:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
Page 74 and 75:
Page 76 and 77:
Page 78:
Page 81 and 82: ■ JOINING THE DOTS TIGER TASK FOR
Page 91 and 92: Wildlife research has been facing s
Page 99: ■ JOINING THE DOTS TIGER TASK FOR
Page 122: TIGER TASK FORCE REPORT JOINING THE
Page 126 and 127: TIGER TASK FORCE REPORT JOINING THE
Page 142: TIGER TASK FORCE REPORT JOINING THE
Page 151: ■ JOINING THE DOTS TIGER TASK FOR
Page 156 and 157: 04Action plan for changeKey recomme
Page 164 and 165: 05References
Page 181 and 182:
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185 and 186:
Page 187 and 188:
Page 189 and 190:
Page 191 and 192:
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
Page 197 and 198:
Page 199 and 200:
Page 201 and 202:
Page 203 and 204:
Page 209 and 210:
Page 211 and 212:
Page 213 and 214:
Page 215 and 216:
Page 217:
show all

Report of the Tiger Task Force - PRS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?