Ooty: Fresh incidents of bear attack and straying of elephants and leopards is a cause of concern as man-animal conflict appears to be escalating in Nilgiris.
On Sunday night, a bear attack incident was reported in Queenshola in Kotagiri in which a woman was injured.
A few days ago, a panther strayed into human settlements in Thoddakambi near Manjoor. In Pandalur area, stray elephants were found prowling. Along the Coonoor-Mettupalaym road movement of sloth bear in village limits in Kundah, Gudalur and Kotagiri talukas were reported. Frequent movement of Indian gaur along roadsides has also been noticed.
This year, 10 people have died in Nilgiris from attacks by wild animals. Over 20 people have been injured too.
“When a person trespasses into forests and attacks a wild animal he is punished under Wildlife Act. But, when wild animals attack people, the compensation is not adequate,” said Prof., T.M. Kullan, president, The Nilgiris Tribal Solidarity (TNTS).
He pointed out that '3 lakh for death and '50,000 for injured is not adequate compensation. Man-animal conflict issue should be treated as natural calamity and adequate funds be allotted to provide meaningful compensation to victims, he said.
The Nilgiris district administration should hold discussion with TNTS as traditional knowledge to deal with man-animal conflict would come handy to tackle this issue, said S. Jayachandran, joint-secretary, Tamil Nadu Green Movement.Wildlife conservation cannot be possible without the support of the people, he said.
“Wildlife conservation is a central subject. The union government should set up a corpus for victims of such attacks,” said Rajeshkumar James, secretary, Coonoor Citizens’ Forum.
