In an effort to curb man-animal conflict, Odisha's forest department has launched a cash incentive scheme to elicit timely information on straying by spotted deer and wild fauna into human habitations.
There are reports of hordes of wild boar and deer species making their way into villages located on the fringes of Bhitarkanika National Park in Kendrapara district.
With animals destroying the crop fields and vegetable cultivation, there has been outbreak of man-animal conflict, a forest department official said.
"So, in order to regulate the intruding animals, the department has taken several measures including conferring cash incentive," Divisional Forest Officer, Rajnagar Mangrove (wildlife) Division, Bimal Prasanna Acharya said.
Timely dissemination of information from ground-zero would come in handy for forest personnel to chase the animals back to the habitation spots of mangrove forest cover.
People who would inform the department about animals' intrusion would be given cash incentive ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 500.
Though the incentive amount is not a large sum, it is a symbolic gesture recognising people's role in wildlife and forest conservation work, said the official.
Earlier a 'cash-incentive' scheme encouraging the
riverside residents to keep the forest department informed of crocodiles' acts of trespass had yielded the desired result with the flooding of ground level information.
Now the incentive has been extended to sighting of wild animals in non-forest areas.
Besides tip-off on wildlife offences, illegal fishing activity and tree felling is also being covered under the cash incentive scheme, intended to reduce the rate of man-animal conflict by chasing away the 'sighted' animals from agriculture fields and village areas, he said.
Any information on the whereabouts of the trespassing mammals and reptiles would be rewarded with on-the-spot cash incentive.
The rationale behind this scheme is to drive away the animals to their original habitation corridors.
Bolstered by 'symbolic' incentive, villagers are now coming forward to timely update the wildlife officials of intruding animals, said forest officials.
The incentive move was necessitated as people are not usually found forthcoming in passing on information on these animals movement otherwise.
By the time the straying animals are driven away, damage is already done, he said.
