The wildlife park managers in Madhya Pradesh are facing anger and stiff resistance from the villagers residing in the buffer areas in close proximity of national parks and sanctuaries because of the delay which is inbuilt in the system when it comes to disbursement of compensation for crop damage caused by wild animals. This issue
figured prominently at the meeting of the board of governors of M.P. Tiger Foundation Society at Van Vihar National Park here on Wednesday. This meeting, presided over by state forest minister Sartaj Singh, was also attended by top forest officials, including those managing Satpura, Pench, Bandhavgarh, Madhav, Sanjay and Kanha National parks.
Addressing the issue, the state forest minister said that the system would have to be improved to ensure speedy disbursal of compensation to the farmers whose crops are damaged by wild animals. He said people were not coming forward with complaints regarding payment of compensation for cattle kills but the main problem was linked with the assessment of crop damage.
This was a cumbersome process involving revenue officials, he said adding that the system would have to be fine tuned to ensure that the affected farmers get at least 50 per cent of the compensation immediately.