Summary:
Dehradun: Man-animal conflict has claimed the lives of 47 people in the last nine months in Uttarakhand. They also rued about “inadequate focus” by government on forest and wildlife conservation. This year’s figures are the second highest in the past seven years.The expenditure on compensating the families of the victims is also on the rise. Of these, as many as 20 people were mauled to death by leopards and tigers. Ever since Uttarakhand has started giving compensation to the victims of wildlife-human conflict from the year 2012, Rs 40 crore has been spent on compensating the families of 313 people who were killed in wild animal attacks.When contacted, forest department officials said that the main reason behind the rise in conflict was rapid urbanisation and fast fragmentation of wildlife corridors,Speaking to TOI, chief wildlife warden of Uttarakhand forest department, Monish Mullick, said: “Human-wildlife conflict is a global concern..