Lucknow. Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday attacked the BJP government for its failure to control human-animal conflict in Uttar Pradesh and suggested handing over the task to the Special Task Force (STF). Before the press conference, former chief minister Yadav met seven families affected by the wolf attack in Bahraich and gave them financial assistance.
“We are seeing accidents on roads and people losing their lives due to stray animals. We have seen people being killed by leopards and tigers in areas adjacent to forests. People in Bahraich are terrorised by jackal/wolf attacks. The government is still not serious,” Yadav said at a press conference at the party headquarters here. Taking a dig at the Special Task Force (STF) of the police, which was in news after a recent encounter, Yadav said, “An STF should be formed to deal with the problem of stray animals. Or (this) STF should be given the task of solving the jackal problem.” He said that instead of killing the animals, illegal felling of their forests should be stopped. Yadav claimed that forests are being cut on a large scale since the BJP came to power.
He said, “To solve the problem of stray animals, we will have to rise above the bulldozer mentality. A nodal officer was appointed to solve the problem of stray animals. What action is being taken against that nodal officer? What happened to the huge funds given for managing the problem of stray animals.” Yadav demanded that the government should give an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh to the families of the children killed in the wolf attack in Bahraich and Rs 1 lakh should be given to the injured.
Before the press conference, Yadav met the seven families affected by the wolf attacks in Bahraich and provided assistance of Rs 50,000 each to the seven families killed in the attacks and Rs 25,000 each to the injured. Since mid-July, a pack of six wolves has terrorised the residents of many villages in Bahraich. Thousands of citizens of 50 villages located in the Ghaghra river basin in Mahsi tehsil of Bahraich are in panic due to wolf attacks. Eight people, including seven children, have died in wolf attacks since July 17, while about three dozen people have been injured in attacks by wolves or other animals. Under Operation Bhediya Abhiyan, five wolves have been caught, while the search for the sixth wolf is ongoing.