Uttarakhand panel to submit report on damage by wildlife to agriculture

UTtarakhand’s Rural evolution and Migration bar charge is conducting a consider on the wallop of wild animals destroying agricultural fields and will submit its findings to the state government by the end of March. The study has been commissioned as such damage has been cited as a factor contributing to migration from rural areas.Sharad Singh Negi, the commission vice chairman, said data has been collected from nearly 7,000 gram panchayats across Uttarakhand, and analysis is currently underway. “We are assessing the extent of damage, identifying which wild animals are causing the most harm, which crops are affected, and in which regions the problem is more severe.”Negi said the nature of the problem varies geographically. “In some areas, monkeys are a major menace. In others, wild boars cause extensive crop damage. Nilgai, elephants, and porcupines are also responsible.”He said wild animal impact is one of the reasons people migrate. “As per our findings [in previous reports], it contributes around 7–8% to migration.”The fresh study will examine the compensation mechanism for farmers affected by wildlife damage. Negi said provisions for compensation exist, but many do not file claims. “There is a provision for compensation, but the process is not very smooth. People face difficulties in claiming it, which discourages them.” He said the commission will document local solutions people adopted to tackle the issue.In December, chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said solar fencing and sensor-based alert systems would be installed across the state to address crop damage caused by rising human–wildlife conflict.The Uttarakhand forest department in August last year granted conditional permission to hunt wild boar and nilgai that damage crops.The state government constituted the commission in August 2017 to examine the problem, evolve a vision for the focused development of the state’s rural areas, and submit recommendations on how to stop migration. The commission submitted its first state-wide report on migration in 2018 and has released 25 such reports so far.The commission’s first report said over 3,83,726 people left villages temporarily in eight years from 2011 to 2018, while 1,18,981 migrated permanently. Another report in March 2023 said that 3,07,310 people migrated temporarily in five years (2018-22), while 28,531 people migrated permanently. As many as 734 villages were deserted between 2011 and 2018, and 24 villages between 2018 and 2022.Around 350,000 people returned to their villages or nearby areas during the first wave of COVID-19 in March 2020. As many as 115,000 returned during the second wave in 2021. But almost all returned, the commission said. In July 2022, Dhami issued directions for the constitution of a committee for better implementation of the commission’s recommendations.