Parrots are wild animals, rules HC; orders Maharashtra Government to compensate farmer for crop damage

The Bombay High Court has ordered the Maharashtra Government to compensate a farmer for pomegranate trees damaged by parrots, ruling the birds are “wild animals” under the Wild Life (Protection) Act and the state must reimburse citizens for losses caused by its property.

The Nagpur bench of Justices Urmila Joshi-Phalke and Nivedita Mehta noted that if farmers are not compensated for losses caused by protected species, they might resort to measures that harm wildlife, thus defeating the very purpose of the Act, which explicitly covers parrots.

A copy of the order passed on April 24 was made available on Sunday.

The court passed the order on a petition filed by Mahadeo Dekate (70), a farmer from Hingi village in Wardha district, who claimed that his pomegranate trees were damaged by wild parrots from the nearby wildlife sanctuary in May 2016, and sought compensation for the same.

The court has ordered the Government to pay Rs 200 per tree for damages caused to 200 trees.

The State Government opposed the plea, claiming that Government resolutions issued in the past stated that compensation can be granted only when wild elephants and bison damage fruit-bearing trees.

The court, however, refused to accept this contention, pointing out that the objective of issuing such resolutions was to compensate affected farmers for losses they suffered.

“When such an objective has been expounded, it makes no sense to consider loss caused only by a few species of wild animals and ignore the loss caused by other species of wild animals for the purpose of payment of compensation,” it stated.