The claims of Ms Kriti Karanth, Wild seve that she helped and facilitated payment of ex- gracia for thousands of cases is baseless and false as department is unaware if it and wild seve has never interacted with Department. Even to facilitate a single case one has to interact with department officers. No such interactions happened. More over department pays Ex- Gracia and not compensation. So the claim of ‘Compensation’ itself is basically flawed.
Director, Bandipur Tiger Reserve had issued a press note on 17 - 5-2019 giving clarification that no organisation/ individual/ NGO was involved in facilitating the process of payment of compensation for crop damage/ livestock lives lost due to attack from wild animals and hence any such claims are baseless , false and far from truth . However, it is for information of all that no press has carried the press note.
Department learnt some NGOs had represented to ROLEX informing that wildseve claims are baseless and false . Department had also tweeted on Rolex twitter informing the same . Looks like the facts have been ignored by ROLEX and the award is given to some one who baselesly and falsely claims to have facilitated the payment of compensation.
Anyone who really engaged and did such social work , Forest Department would be happy if they claim to have done the work and get awards. Infact department would be happy and proud of such people as it is an award for our Nation. We are unhappy that baseless claims have been accepted and acknowledged with an award without verifying ground reality. When department had made clear on twitter that the claims are baseless, ROLEX should have got it investigated and found truth from the local department staff , officers and local people of Nagarahole and Bandipur Tiger Reserves. But no such efforts seem to have been made as no one contacted our department to verify facts . This we didn’t expect of an international company like ROLEX, especially for an international award for which hundreds of genuine claimants would have participated. Difficult to comprehend the compulsions on account if which such verification was not done .
People in fringe villages interact with department day in and day out and very well know that ex- Gracia is paid by department and they approach us directly. We have no instances of mediators approaching department. Moreover, we have Anti Depredation camps located at convenient places to cover all the protected area fringe villages to drive away elephants, deer , etc. These camps interact with the villagers of their jurisdiction daily. . So where is the need for mediators? Even before these camps were established, the forest watchers and Guards are in regular touch with the villagers to whom they complain of crop damage or cattle kill by wildlife. Payment is made directly to the beneficiary bank accounts and not through any mediator.
For crop damage from elephants we normally get calls immediately when the elephants enter the village lands and our Rapid Response Teams / Anti Depredation Teams go and drive away the elephants. There after they take applications and process and make payment of ex-gracia for crop damage caused by the elephants, if any. For cattle death , we get call from the claimants , our officers go to the spot, collect information, have post mortem done, process and then pay ex- gracia . For human death due to wild animals, our senior officers go to the spot with a signed cheque for 2 lakhs and hand over on the spot. Balance is paid subsequently after ascertaining legal heir. So where is the scope for a middleman to operate here or help or assist department? Past one year we even have 1926 helpline to which also people call and inform and now a mobile app is operational for making ex- gracia payment for crop damage/ animal deaths due to wild animals.
Facts are brought to the notice of one and all.
