A provision of Rs 15 lakh per family has now been made to the family units accepting voluntary resettlement from the protected areas and villages of the Tiger Reserve Corridor area of ??the state. Giving information about the decision taken by the State Government, Forest Minister Kunwar Vijay Shah has said that before this, from the year 2008, compensation amount for displacement from protected villages was Rs 10 lakh per family unit.
Forest Minister Shah said that in this period of 13 years, considering this amount is not sufficient over time, the State has requested the Central Government to take into account the proposal to increase it through various formal and informal forums. On the proposal, the National Tiger Conservation Authority, New Delhi, under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, gave its approval to the proposed compensation amount. The Forest Minister informed that in the meeting of the Council of Ministers held on 7th December 2021, the continuation of scheme No 5109 including increase in compensation package for rehabilitation was approved.
Forest Minister Shah informed that a provision of Rs.300 crore has been kept for resettlement in the year 2022-23. In this, Rs 285 crore has been approved from CAMPA head and Rs 15 crore for resettlement in plan number 5109. With this arrangement, families living near Sanjay Tiger Reserve, Nauradehi Sanctuary and Ratapani Sanctuary will be able to be resettled.
The Forest Minister said that the increase in the compensation package would encourage the villagers living within the inaccessible forest areas to be resettled and connected with the mainstream of development. At the same time, human-wildlife conflict will also be reduced by reducing human interference in inaccessible forest areas and wildlife conservation will be strengthened further.
He said that the villagers living in such forest areas have voluntarily opted for resettlement, in which 16 thousand family units have been relocated to new habitations.