Environmental organisations in the district have expressed concern over the alleged apathy of successive governments in adopting proactive steps to mitigate man-animal conflict in hilly areas of the State, including Wayanad.
The Wayanad Prakruthi Samrakshana Samiti (WPSS) urged the government to constitute an expert committee to study the issue comprehensively.
The government had recently sought suggestions and opinions from environmental organisations, farmer organisations, political parties and NGOs in the State regarding the issue.
The WPSS said in its reply that the massive anthropogenic intervention on wildlife habitat was the major reason behind the increasing incidents of man-animal conflict.
Temporary measures such as constructing walls, installing power fence, digging trenches and erecting rail fence to mitigate the issue should be continued but corruption in the name of constructions should be avoided.
Close to 36% of the forestland in the district has turned into monoculture plantations and they should be converted into natural forest at the earliest. The responsibility to address the issue should be handed over to grama panchayats as per the recommendation of the National Wildlife Board, and local body officials should be trained for the purpose.
Subsidy and annual maintenance grant should be given to farmers on the fringes of forests, who are ready to develop measures to mitigate man-animal conflict effectively.
The organisation also raised demands such as doubling the compensation for animal crop raid; increasing the compensation for human death in wildlife attack from ₹5 lakh to ₹25 lakh; ensuring insurance for crop raid and wild attack; curbing unrestricted tourism inside the forest in the name of ecotourism and eradicating exotic plants that is posing a threat to the wildlife habitat.
