Curb wildlife menace in Bramhapuri: Wadettiwar

Chandrapur: Guardian minister Vijay Wadettiwar expressed his concern over rising instances of predator attack and crop damage due to wildlife in the area under Bramhapuri forest division, during a meeting with senior forest officials on Monday.
As many as 19 people have been killed and 69 injured by predator attacks in Bramhapuri forests during the last three years. Wadettiwar said there are 85 tigers in the forests under Bramhapuri division and 51 villages are under the sway of tiger attacks.
He told the forest officials that villages in Bramhapuri have sustained heavy crop losses due to intrusion of wild animals in agriculture fields and directed them to immediately approve the proposal worth Rs50 crore for fencing of fringe forest areas under the ‘Dr Shyamaprasad Mukherjee Jan Van Vikas Scheme’.
Wadettiwar had summoned the meeting to take stock of loss to human life and crop damage in Chandrapur district due to wildlife. He expressed his particular apprehension about rising population of wild boars, that are mainly responsible for crop damage. He told PCCF (wildlife) that there was a similar problem of crop damage due to wild boar intrusion in other districts.
Officials said that the range forest officer (RFO) in the area had been delegated with the powers to permit the killing of wild boars by farmers if boars are creating nuisance. Wadettiwar, however, countered that the process of seeking permission is arduous and requires experts to kill the boars, as per SOP of forest department.
Wadettiwar suggested the officials to revise the policy related to dealing with wild boars and immediately submit a proposal for curbing the wildlife menace in Bramhapuri forests. He also told the officials to pay the pending compensation to those injured in wildlife attacks, and provide benefit of solar fencing scheme to the farmers.