Tiger Victims Paralegal-Aid Clinic

October 12^th and 13^th, 2023

Overview

• The fourth paralegal-aid clinic was conducted at Jharkhali, Sundarban.
• The purpose of this clinic was to finalize letters regarding the demands of the families of tiger victims to various institutions which were already discussed and considered in the previous three clinics.
• Apart from the above the other agenda of the clinic was to continue providing paralegal aid to as many individual cases as possible.

Background

Please follow the previous posts on the topic here, here and here.

Paralegal Clinic at Kumirmari 12^th October

It was discovered in the paralegal clinic that Anjali Munda of Kumirmari village had received one lakh rupees as compensation for the death of her husband due to wildlife attack in 2011 but similar affected victims have not received the same compensation for similar accidental deaths.

It was further discovered that some of the tiger widows could not get their police reports and reports from the forest department after the death of their husbands. Hence, adequate steps were taken in regard to placing formal requests and those letters were explained to them and after understanding the contents of the letters they consented in giving their thumb impressions. This simple act of writing formal letters is a huge obstacle for the families of the victims due to abysmal gap in literacy and ineffective local government.

It was further discovered that many families do not have sufficient documents to prove that the death of their family member has occurred due to wildlife attacks whereas some of them do possess post mortem report death certificate etc.; In this regard the paralegal clinic representatives of DISHA collected the documents as possessed by the families of victims to prepare the compensation and claim requests as per law.

As discussed in the previous posts there is immense interested in being included in the West Bengal Rehabilitation by Providing Employment Assistance Scheme, 2023 and it was decided to file applications in this regard with the help of the representatives of DISHA even if there is a chance of rejections of the  applications as explained in the previous blog post (here); It was also decided that there will be further paralegal clinics in future with a focus on preparing these applications.

Undertaking Steps in Recent Cases of Wildlife Attacks

In the evening the team from DISHA undertook the cases of two tiger widows, whose husbands were succumbed to fatal injuries on 17^th October, 2019. These cases are relatively recent than other cases that have been provided paralegal assistance by DISHA.

Their husbands were mauled by tigers while they had gone to fish in the waterways of Sajnekhali forest area. Some of their blc certificate had already expired for three days by the time of their fishing run on 17^th October, 2019; but penalty for the expiration of the blc certificate was paid for them at a later date. The forest department did not furnish the record of the penalty paid for the expiration of the blc certificate despite multiple requests and as a result the families of the victims could not file their requests to claim compensation which they are entitled to, as per law. Letters of the incident and irregularities were also made to high officials such as Deputy Field Director of Forest Department, Deputy District Collector of South 24 Parganas.

Development of Insurance Claims by the Families of Victims

The victims were insured under the Personal Accident Insurance and their wives were declared as nominee at the time of undertaking the said insurances, hence the family members had filed for claims for the assured amount to the Officer-in-charge of Personal Accident Insurance office at Diamond Harbour but their claim was rejected because the victims had gone for fishing without the permit.

The evidence of payment of penalty would have strengthened their cases as the irregularity that is indicated by the insurance office was mitigated but since the forest department refused to furnish the evidence to the families of the victims despite raising the issue to top officials they could not appeal against the decision of the insurance officer. The families are also entitled to receive compensation from the forest department but the department has been silent on those requests.

The team from DISHA after taking into consideration the development of these cases decided to raise the issue before the Superintendent of Police to obtain the police report which has been pending up until then; they also prepared letters to District Magistrate and to the Chief Conservator of Forest, Forest Department for their consideration and appropriate actions as per law. The letters were prepared, explained and signed by the widows.

Paralegal Clinic on 13th October 2023

The paralegal clinic was attended by 44 people among whom were not only the families of victims who succumbed to fatal injuries during their fishing trips but also residents of Jharkhali, Sundarabans who faced tiger attacks in their villages. The meeting was also attended by local panchayat representatives.

The clinic started with depositions from the families of victims and their struggle in receiving the compensations and insurance claims, which they are entitled to, apart from local activists who gave detailed accounts of various obstacles faced by them. Geeta Mridha, Dibakar Shyasmal and Tapan Mondal, who have been working on the plight of the families of victims of wildlife attacks, gave their accounts at the clinic meeting wherein the local representatives of panchayat were also present. They also addressed the families to collect and store the necessary documents such as policy papers of insurance, blc certificates and letters to police authorities so that their claims and requests can be prepared by the team of DISHA and the local activists. The villagers were also intimated about the plan of action regarding filing application under the West Bengal Rehabilitation by Providing Employment Assistance Scheme, 2023 for the families of the victims as their situation is covered in Category I of the said scheme. It was declared that the paralegal team will assist one application per family under the scheme.

Atindriyo Chakraborty from the paralegal team, had intimated information regarding certain cases wherein the Government had provided compensation to the families of the victims of wildlife attacks. He also elucidated the legal rights available to the families and certain misconceptions that persisted in the local people regarding the applicability of the compensations and/or insurance claims. One of the major misconceptions that persisted in the local people is that they are not eligible of compensation if the attacks occurred in the core area or buffer area of the declared protected forests. In this regard he stated that correct position of law when it comes to compensation there is no such consideration under law and any person whose death has occurred due to the attacks of wildlife is entitled for compensation. He also stated that the families are entitled for compensation irrespective of the validity of BLC certificate as per law.

Furthermore, he explained a leaflet prepared by the team of DISHA regarding the rights of the families of victims of wildlife attacks. He stated that based on the rights elucidated in the leaflet the team of DISHA in consultation with the local activists have prepared a 10 point demand letters which is given to the district officials for their consideration. Along with the demand a formal request of deputation is also made to the district officials.

It was decided that the next clinic will take place on 18^th and 19^th November, 2023 where the work of preparation of claims and compensation requests will continue.