Row over Karntaka relief for Kerala elephant attack

Bengaluru: Karnataka minister Eshwar Khandre’s letter to Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi on Rs 15 lakh compensation to the family of a Kerala farmer killed by an elephant translocated from Hassan has snowballed into a controversy, with political parties and wildlife activists questioning the Karnataka government’s ‘generosity’.

Minister for Forests, Ecology and Environment Khandre, in a letter to Rahul on Monday (February 19), had stated that on his (Rahul’s) advice, the Karnataka Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has decided to pay a compensation of Rs 15 lakh to the farmer in Rahul’s constituency after he was trampled to death by a radio-collared elephant.

Sources in the forest department say this is the first time the Karnataka government is paying compensation to victims in another state. 

The makhna elephant (a male elephant without a tusk) was captured in November near Hassan and released in Bandipur after villagers in Hassan and Madikeri opposed its release in their area.

The elephant had trampled Ajeesh on February 10, resulting in protests in Kerala.

Opposition leaders and wildlife activists criticised the government’s move.

BJP state president B Y Raghavendra, former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy and other leaders raise the issue.

Raghavendra termed the payment of compensation as an “insult” to Karnataka as the state’s exchequer is being used to “please a party leader”. On his social media account, the BJP state president said: “Congress government’s misuse of taxpayers’ money is an insult to Karnataka. The state government is cheating Karnataka by illegally compensating a farmer in Wayanad, just because it happens to be Rahul’s Lok Sabha constituency.”

Kumaraswamy questioned the the Congress government’s priority saying it pays Rs 2,000 to farmers of Karnataka who have suffered crop loss due to drought, while it has compensated the Kerala resident Rs 15 lakh.

“Animals do not have borders and no state can claim it to be their own. Then why is Karnataka paying compensation in Kerala,” wildlife activist Joseph Hoover said and added that the fragmentation of the elephant corridor is the main reason for the increase in human-animal conflict and the governments should concentrate on this first.

Khandre told reporters in Bidar that the state government only decided to compensate the farmer in Kerala on humanitarian grounds.

There was a mistake on the part of Karnataka Forest Department as we failed to inform our Kerala counterparts about the elephant’s movements,” said an officer.