The state has “very casually” calculated that amount of compensation as ₹10,000 in the case of a woman bravery award winner who survived a tiger attack in 2017, the Bombay High Court has said, remarking that it is “shocked” by the amount. The bench said authorities should have considered that the attack was by a wild animal, that too a tiger, and has directed a compensation of ₹1 lakh to the victim instead.
“The trauma which the petitioner has received after the attack of a fully grown tiger is not considered and the respondent has very casually calculated the amount of compensation of ₹10,000 considering it as simple injury. That she has survived tiger attack, is more important,” the division bench of Justices Rohit B. Deo and Vrushali V. Joshi has stated in an order of April 18. The court added that the authorities should have considered the trauma suffered by her, irrespective of whether the injury was simple or grievous.
The compensation had been calculated by the Assistant Conservation of Forest Department at ₹10,000 as she has received a simple injury. “We are shocked with the decision taken by the Assistant Conservator of Forest. when the Government has honoured her by giving Bravery Certificate,” the order stated.
Inadequate compensation
The survivor had approached the HC against the state’s Revenue and Forest Department and two forest authorities. A resident of Chandrapur, the woman labourer had sustained injuries when she had ventured into the forest to collect seeds on Jan 24, 2017. Her petition stated that she was seriously injured in the incident and some labourers who heard her fight back saved her after the tiger ran off into the nearby forest due to the commotion that ensued. She was in the hospital for four days. She said in her petition seeking enhanced compensation, that she had received only ₹6,000 in compensation. Her advocate had told the HC bench that due to the injury sustained in the attack, her right arm was not incapacitated and the incident had also mentally disturbed her.
