the goan I network
MAPUSA
Accepting that incidents of crop destruction by wild animals have shot up, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said the government will revisit the previous decision to declare certain wild animals as vermin.
“In the past there were attempts to declare certain animals as vermin but that did not materialise. But since a lot of crops are being destroyed due to the nuisance created by wild animals, we will look into the matter of declaring certain species of wild animals as vermin again,” Sawant said.
The chief minister was speaking in the House during the Calling Attention motion over destruction of crops by wild animals moved by Sanguem MLA, Prasad Gaonkar.
The chief minister said that it’s a fact that wild animals do not get anything to eat in the jungles and therefore they come to the villages.
“We have now made provision to grow fruit bearing trees deep in the forest,” Sawant said.
He also said that off late the wild animals get disturbed in their habitats and therefore some of the bigger animals from across the border enter into our region.
“Recently, a tiger was located in our forest in a camera trap. We have tigers in our forest. But this tiger must have come from Karnataka. Since our forest borders the forest of Karnataka and Maharashtra the animals come and go probably because of water,” he said.
Earlier, Sanguem MLA Prasad Goankar during the calling attention motion said that crops cultivated by people in his constituency have suffered heavy damages due to havoc created by wild animals such a bisons, wild buffaloes, wild boars, monkeys and peacocks.
“Our people have suffered a lot of losses this year. In many places entire fields have been
devastated by bisons. The government should increase the financial compensation to such farmers,” Gaonkar said.
Agriculture minister Chandrakant (Babu) Kavlekar said that government had several schemes through which the farmers suffering losses due to wild animals were compensated.
“It’s true that wild animals destroy the fields of the farmers. That is why my department takes precaution by carrying out fencing so that wild animals don’t enter the fields. We also provide compensation to those farmers whose crops were damaged by wild animals,” Kavlekar said.
Tivim MLA, Nilkant Harlarnkar and Aldona MLA, Glenn Ticlo also took part in the discussion.
