Tents erected by a resort close to forest areas in Wayanad district, Kerala without the forest department's permission.
Credit: Special arrangement
Thiruvananthapuram: In a bid to address man-animal conflicts in Wayanad in Kerala, a high-level meeting on Tuesday decided to take steps to improve the natural vegetation in the forest areas of Wayanad.
The meeting attended by three ministers decided to initiate schemes in this regard with support of MGNREGA programmes. Steps to remove the vegetation that pose threats to the natural vegetation would be also taken.
Revenue minister K Rajan said that stringent action would be taken against resorts close to forest areas that try to attract wild animals for tourist attraction.
Measures like enhancing surveillance at man-animal conflict prone areas by installing 250 surveillance cameras and deploying more forest teams are progressing.
In view of the inadequate health infrastructure of Wayanad, the government would bear the treatment expense of wild animal attack victims at private hospitals also, said the minister.
A suggestion to restrict cattle farming activities close to the forest areas had reportedly not gone down well among many.
Congress MLAs from Wayanad boycotted the meeting stating that they have lost confidence in the ministers, especially Forest Minister A K Saseendran, as none visited families of the wild animal attack victims so far. They demanded that the chief minister himself should have come to Wayanad considering the gravity of the issue and also demanded the forest minister's resignation.
Congress also staged a day-and-night demonstration at Wayanad on Tuesday to protest against the alleged lapses of the government to address the issues.
The delegation of ministers also visited houses of those recently killed in wild animal attacks.
CPI, which is a coalition party in the ruling front, demanded that the cases registered against local people in connection with the recent stir should be withdrawn.
Meanwhile, wild animal threats continued at Wayanad on Tuesday also. There were reports that a tiger was spotted at a human settlement at Meppadi in Wayanad.
Water scarcity in the forest owing to the acute summer is considered to be the reasons for a spurt in man-animal conflicts.