Amid simmering farm worry in Wayanad over human, animal face-off, Rahul Gandhi faces heat from LDF, BJP
Amid simmering farm worry in Wayanad over human, animal face-off, Rahul
Gandhi faces heat from LDF, BJP
Shaju Philip, Indian Express
April 24, 2024
On Tuesday, on the road leading to Vadakkanad village near Sulthan Bathery
town in the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, Sulaiman is seen pulling down
the shutters of his small tea shop at 6 pm. “It is too early to shut down,
but travellers along this route are under constant threat from wild
animals. People are scared to move on this road after dusk. Hence, there is
no point in keeping the tea shop open,’’ he says.
The local villagers have been going to bed early every evening for the last
three years since the threat from wild animals escalated in Wayanad, which
is the worst-affected district on the score of human-animal conflict in
Kerala.
The Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency encompasses Wayanad district and some
segments of the adjoining Malappuram and Kozhikode districts. Vadakkand is
among a large number of villages located in Wayanad’s forest belts, with
the district having a nearly 36% forest cover.
A resident of Vadakkanad, Gopalan, a trader and newspaper agent, says:
“After 7 pm, life is at the mercy of wild animals. Rarely do people venture
out of their homes afterwards to make purchases. Those working outside the
village ensure that they enter Vadakkand by early evening itself. Many
youths, who are based not far away from the village, have opted to stay out
in their places of work due to animal threat. Our children cannot go for a
tuition class in a nearby town in the evening.”
Recounting the plight of villagers, a local farmer T Santhosh says, “Our
region has vast tracts of agricultural land, but for the last three years I
have not cultivated any vegetables or food crops. Last week also, a wild
elephant came close to my house to pluck jackfruits after destroying the
standing crops. By evening, herds of spotted deers would raid the farm
lands. And wild boars would also rummage through the fields and destroy
vegetation.
There is no fodder in the forest and all types of wild animals are heading
to villages for food. We cannot rear cows due to the threat from the
tigers.’’
Another farmer Unni is indignant. “Everyone is asking what our MP Rahul
Gandhi had done to curb wildlife attacks in Wayanad. Did he ever raise the
issue in Parliament? He may again win as people would vote again for other
reasons. But he could not offer any solace to us on this issue,’’ Unni says.
This time, Rahul Gandhi is pitted against the CPI(M)-led LDF candidate
Annie Raja, the CPI leader, and BJP nominee and state party president K
Surendran in Wayanad, with all 20 Lok Sabha constituencies going to polls
on April 26.
While the human-animal conflict is one of the key election issues in
several constituencies across Kerala, the situation seems to be grimmer in
Wayanad, where three people have been trampled to death by wild elephants
this year so far.
The LDF, Congress and BJP have been blaming each other over this raging
crisis, which has already displaced many farmer families from their lands
abutting forest tracts.
During his two-day campaign in Wayanad last week, Rahul said, “The issue of
man-animal conflict is a huge problem for Wayanad. We are committed to
resolving the issue. I have written several times to the state and the
central governments. We will continue to put pressure on them. We are going
to come to power in Delhi and Kerala, and solve these issues.”
The CPI(M), which is leading the charge on behalf of Annie Raja, has
targeted Rahul over the issue of wildlife menace. The CPI(M)’s Wayanad
district secretary P Gagari says, “Rahul was silent on the issue. While
Kerala people have been killed by tigers and elephants, he never sought
amendment to the Wildlife Protection Act. Has he brought a single project
to Kerala for mitigating the animal menace.”
Sensing the ire of farmers during the elections, the Pinarayi Vijayan-led
LDF government passed a resolution in the Assembly in February this year to
urge the Centre to amend the Wildlife Protection Act to ease the
procedures, among other things, to kill wild animals posing threat to human
life.
In their campaign meetings in the hilly regions and villages close to
forests in the state, the LDF leaders have been attacking the BJP-led
Centre, maintaining that the issue can be solved only through amending the
Act.
On its part, the BJP is targeting the Congress, with Surendran alleging
that “While the people living in hilly areas are demanding a permanent
solution to the wild animal attacks, the Congress manifesto is against it.”
Surendran also blamed the LDF government, saying that in November the Union
government had eased existing laws to help affected people. “But carbon
funding is flowing to Kerala under the guise of environmental protection.
Congress has been supporting pseudo-environmental activism,’’ he claimed.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) vice-president and Wayanad MLA T
Siddique said: “BJP has been cruel to the victims of the wildlife attacks.
When Wayanad was burning over the issue, Annie Raja and K Surendran never
intervened. Rahul Gandhi had visited the victim families, ensured support
for them, which CM Vijayan never bothered to do during his visit to the
district.”
Kerala Independent Farmers Association (KIFA) chairman Alex Ozhukayil said,
“Farmers across the state are crestfallen over the failures of CPI(M),
Congress and BJP in addressing the (human-animal conflict) issue. Whenever
the issue is being debated, these parties blame one another or skirt the
issue.’’
Wayanad district has lost 41 lives to elephant attacks and seven to tiger
attacks over the last decade. The district’s forests are a part of a
greater forested area comprising Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, Bandipur National
Park, and BR Tiger Reserve in Karnataka, and Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and
Sathyamangalam Forest in Tamil Nadu. Wild animals, especially elephants and
tigers, traverse state borders in search of food.
The increased incidence of wild animals, mainly elephants, tigers, bison,
and wild boars, attacking human beings have been reported from across
Kerala. Apart from Wayanad, Kannur, Palakkad and Idukki are among the
severely-affected districts in this regard. As per the Kerala government
data, the state recorded 8,873 wild animal attacks during 2022-23, of which
4193 were by wild elephants, 1524 by wild boars, 193 by tigers, 244 by
leopards, and 32 by bisons. Of 98 reported deaths, 27 were due to elephant
attacks.
Beyond posing risk to humans, these attacks also devastated Kerala’s
agriculture sector. From 2017 to 2023, there were 20,957 incidents of crop
loss due to wild animal raids, which also killed 1,559 domestic animals,
mainly cattle.