Farmers of Talavadi Hills, whose crops continue to be raided by wild elephants, said that claiming compensation was a cumbersome process and sought a simplified, single window system.
The farmers in over 10 villages and habitations under the Diginarai Panchayat cultivate sugarcane, maize, banana, cabbage and ragi. In the last one-and-a half years, their crops were frequently raided by a tusker, nicknamed as Karuppan.
P. Govindaraj of Rangasamy Kovil said that the elephant had caused extensive damage to the crops, particularly in the last one month, as harvesting of maize was in progress in the area. “It ventures out of the forest by 9 p.m. and damages crops and leaves only by 7 a.m.”, he said. Farm lands located near Joraikadu, an isolated forest area spread across 430 hectare, were affected the most, he said and added that availing compensation was not viable due to the process involved.
In case of crop damage by animals, farmers have to first alert the Forest Department, obtain certificates from the Village Administrative Officer (VAO) and also from the Horticulture or Agriculture Officer after which the applications have to be submitted to the Forest Department. Many farmers claimed that VAOs were not available in their offices or spend over a week to get the certificates. “Even after six months, compensation is not given to a few farmers. Hence, we have to bear the loss,” said another farmer N. Murugesan, whose four coconut trees were damaged by the elephant a few days ago.
S. Kannaiyan, president of Talavadi Farmers’ Association, told The Hindu that frequent crop raiding takes place in Diginarai area and most of the farmers were unaware of the process involved in claiming the compensation and hence under-reported. “There is no single window approach in availing of the compensation and most farmers illiterates,” he said.
The president said that funds in the Sathyamangalam Tiger Conservation Foundation should be used to settle the claims immediately to the farmers and the Forest Department can get it reimbursed from the State government. “A simplified compensation claim process should be in place and NGOs should assist the farmers in the process,” he said and wanted awareness to be created among farmers on the compensation process and documents required for claims.
