CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu govt on Friday doubled the compensation for human deaths caused by wildlife attacks from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh and revised payouts for injuries, crop loss, tree damage and cattle deaths.Compensation for crop damage has been raised from Rs 25,000 per acre to Rs 40,000 per acre. The govt has also restructured payouts for damaged trees. Under the earlier system, a flat Rs 500 was paid per tree.The new rates are layered by age, Rs 500 for saplings up to one year old, Rs 1,000 per tree aged one to four years, and Rs 2,000 per tree older than four years. Banana plants, hitherto which were not covered, will now attract Rs 250 per plant.Compensation for damage to houses has also been enhanced. For example, a fully damaged house or severely damaged pucca house, the owner will get Rs 95,100 per house under the earlier scheme. Now, it has been enhanced to Rs 1.50 lakh per house or as per the actual damage assessed whichever is less, the order said.For major injury or partial disability, compensation has gone up sharply from Rs 59,100 to Rs 5 lakh. Victims of minor injuries, who received nothing under the earlier scheme, will now be paid Rs 20,000.The upward revision comes two months after forest minister R V Ranjthkumar made an announcement to that effect in the assembly.In the existing system, for a fully/severely damaged thatched/kuccha house, the compensation provided was Rs 10,000 per house, and for kuccha house it was only Rs 5,000. In the new system, flat compensation of Rs 15,000 will be paid as per the actual damage. For a partially damaged house (pucca/kuccha or any other form of house), the compensation earlier paid was only Rs 5,200 per house, which has been enhanced to Rs 10,000 as per the actual damage assessed, the order said.For the death of milch cattle in a wildlife attack, the payout has risen from Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 per animal.
