Wednesday, 10 May 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
As Uttarakhand is a mountain state it has dense forest and this is the reason why the people living in the hill villages keep grappling with the human-wild life conflict. Haldwani-based RTI activist Hemant Gonia sought information from the chief minister’s office as to how many people have been killed in wild animal attacks in the state till now. As per the reply received, since 2000 to 2022, 1054 people have been killed in wild animal attacks and the number of persons injured in such attacks is 5112.
In 2022, 82 people were killed in tiger/leopard attacks while the number of injured was 325. If the figures of the past 12 years are studied the number of deaths in wild animal attacks keeps increasing every year.
In 2011, 50 deaths were recorded. In 2012, 51 deaths were recorded. In 2014, 52 deaths were recorded. In 2015, 62 deaths were recorded. In 2016, 66 deaths were recorded. In 2017, 39 deaths were recorded. In 2018, 52 deaths were recorded. In 2019, 54 deaths were recorded. In 2020, 62 deaths were recorded. In 2021, 59 deaths were recorded. And in 2022, 82 deaths were recorded. This year, in the past four months, six people have been killed in tiger attacks.
Although the State government has been allocating money in budgets to save people’s lives from animal attacks it is hardly reflected in the ground reality as the human deaths in animal attacks continue unabated. This is resulting in migration from the hill villages and due to decreasing number of villagers, the number of animal attacks keeps increasing.
Hemant Gonia further sought information on the amounts spent on compensation given to the families of those killed in animal attacks, on the budget kept on this matter and how much amount in the budget remains. The government department said in its reply that it had no information prior to 2012. Between 2012 and 2022-23, Rs 11.90 crore has been received as budgetary allocation on this count. So far Rs 10.89 crore has been spent while Rs 9.37 crore has been given back to the government and till now Rs 35.34 lakh has been lying with the government.
