Daltonganj: A landmine blew up a pick up van belonging to the forest department, killing two of the staff on the spot. The Guardians of the Wild programme run by the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) under its one-of-its-kind Accident Insurance scheme, which brings all the frontline field forest staff in the country under an insurance umbrella, has actioned a claim for Rs 1 lakh to the nominees of each man killed.

On 6th September Danimal Khalko , a forester and Sitaram Maji, a tracker were traveling from Daltonganj South to Garu, the range headquarters within the Palamau Tiger Reserve in the eastern state of Jharkhand, which was formerly part of Bihar. The van was ripped apart by a landmine, killing the two men on the spot.

This news was given to WTI by the DFO Jamshedpur. Dr Rakesh Kumar Singh who manages the Guardians of the Wild programme in WTI headquarters promptly got the details of this incident from the DFO Palamau Tiger Reserve and the DFO Daltonganj south.

Armed extremists are present in the Reserve and landmine blasts are a very common occurrence. This has affected the administration, particularly at the level of forester and forest guard. These functionaries are not in a position to enforce the law and regulations on their own.

“We have contacted the concerned forest department for procuring the necessary documents to process the insurance claim,” said Singh.

“In case of a claim, the officer concerned sends the relevant documents to WTI, which verifies and processes the claim, and forwards it to Tata AIG. Tata AIG subsequently processes the claim and issues the cheque to WTI. A WTI project officer then personally hands over the cheque to the nominee or the claimant, as the case may be,” explained Singh.

The insurance package designed by Tata AIG offers Rs 1 lakh as the sum insured per employee. The scope of cover is in case of death, permanent partial, and permanent total disability due to an accident. The claim can be made by employees themselves in case of disability, or the nominee in case of death. All forest department employees of the rank of range forest officer and below on field wildlife duties are eligible. Even temporary employees given duties in the last three years and are on field wildlife duties are entitled to the package.

The insurance policy stipulates that an intimation regarding claim should be lodged within 15 days of the accident. This condition can be waived under special circumstances. Moreover, a death certificate supported by a post mortem report / FIR giving the cause of death will help speed up the claim settlement. However, if the death certificate clearly spells out the cause of death, other documents are not mandatory.

Between 2001 and 2004, 21 states have joined this insurance scheme and 14 families have availed of the compensation.