Chennai: Tamil Nadu govt on Friday doubled the compensation for human deaths caused by wildlife attacks from ₹5 lakh to ₹10 lakh, and revised payouts for injuries, crop loss, tree damage and cattle deaths.Compensation for crop damage has been raised from ₹25,000 per acre to ₹40,000 per acre. The govt has also restructured payouts for damaged trees. Under the earlier system, a flat ₹500 was paid per tree. The new rates are layered by age: ₹500 for saplings up to one year old, ₹1,000 per tree aged one to four years, and ₹2,000 per tree older than four years. Banana plants will now attract ₹250 per plant.Compensation for damaged houses has been enhanced. Under the earlier scheme, owners of fully or severely damaged pucca houses received ₹95,100. This has now been increased to ₹1.50 lakh per house, or the actual assessed damage, whichever is less, the order said.For major injury or partial disability, compensation has gone up sharply from ₹59,100 to ₹5 lakh. Victims of minor injuries, who received nothing under the earlier scheme, will now be paid ₹20,000.The revision comes two months after forest minister R V Ranjthkumar announced about it in the assembly two months ago.In the existing system, compensation was ₹10,000 for a fully or severely damaged thatched/kutcha house, and only ₹5,000 for other kutcha houses. Under the new system, a flat compensation of ₹15,000 will be paid based on the actual damage. For a partially damaged house (pucca, kutcha, or any other type), the earlier compensation of ₹5,200 has been enhanced to ₹10,000 based on the actual damage assessed.For the death of milch cattle in a wildlife attack, the payout has risen from ₹30,000 to ₹40,000 per animal.
