The Alipurduar district administration on Monday distributed over ₹4 crore to around 1,100 farmers as compensation for losses caused by wild elephants.
“The farmers of Kalchini block were brought under the ambit of the Bangla Shasya Bima or the crop insurance scheme of the state government. They cultivated potatoes and had to bear losses because of frequent elephant attacks. We assessed their losses and accordingly, we disbursed ₹4.03 crore to 1,130 farmers of the block today. It will help them in compensating their losses,” R. Vimala, the district magistrate, said.
Sources in the administration said according to the state’s guidelines, the farmers were paid ₹85,000 per hectare.
In Alipurduar, the Kalchini block is close to the Buxa Tiger Reserve area. In a regular manner, wild elephants stray into the agricultural fields for fodder.
“In other blocks of the district, a farmer could harvest around 34,000 kilos of potatoes from one hectare of land. But in Kalchini, the yield was low, that is, around 18,000 kilos per hectare. However, because of elephant depredation, it further declined to 10,000 kilos per hectare. It is good that the administration took the initiative to help these farmers through the crop insurance scheme,” said a wholesale potato merchant based in Alipurduar.