879 human lives lost in wild animal attacks in six and half years

KOTTAYAM: In the last six and a half years, 879 human lives have been lost in the attacks of wild animals in the state. 4802 people were injured. Wild animals attacks have also destorys around Rs 97 crore worth of crops every year. Most of the dead lived in the forest borders. This is the figure from January 1, 2017 to September 30, 2017. Rs 16.74 crores were paid to the dead and 43.11 crores to the injured during this period, according to RTI documents.

Elephants, bears, tigers, tigers, wild boars, wild buffaloes and venomous snakes are among the leading killers of humans. Pig, monkey, fox and bee are on the attacker list. Elephants killed 115 and bison killed 10.

Most of the claims for compensation are related to attacks by snakes, elephants, bees, wild buffaloes, pigs, tigers and leopards. After the flood, wild boars proliferated in the state.

Reason

• Food and water plenty on forest borders
• Hunting in the forest is difficult in terms of physical requirements
• Domestic animals can be preyed upon without physical labour

Deaths

2017: 128

2018: 133

2019: 122

2020: 111

2021: 132

2022: 137

2023: 116