Questioned by a reporter on the recent tragic killing of a four-year-old girl by a leopard in Valparai in Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu Forest Minister RS Rajakannappan on Wednesday, June 25, termed attacks by elephants and other animals as “usual” occurrences and asserted that government was not the cause of these “day-to-day” happenings.

The minister was interacting with the media after an event organised by his department at the Vandalur zoo near Chennai. The minister’s response indicated that he had perceived the question as being critical of the government, stated a report by The New Indian Express.

Rajakannappan went on to assert that what was important was whether the government was taking action or not. “Forest department is certainly taking action. Those bitten by insects come here. They come to us to catch (stray) dogs. Forest department is only handling everything,” he said.

When the reporter pointed out that the minister’s reply sounded apathetic, considering that a life was lost, the minister agreed that loss of lives is serious, but went on to enquire to which media organisation the reported belonged to.

Digressing from the issue, he then said that the government was being blamed for day-to-day occurrences. “Someone commits a murder due to (personal) motive. What can the government do,” he asked. “However, when it comes to an issue faced by the public, our government and CM have certainly take action,” he added.

On being intimated by officials at the event, he added that the forest department has offered compensation for loss of lives due to human-animal conflict, including the death in the Valparai incident.

“I am not saying no action can be taken. See, an incident happens. Is the police not taking action? Are we taking action against drugs or not? Government is certainly taking action for global-level [sic] problems and day-to-day incidents [sic],” he said.

Later, when the conversation became one-on-one between the reporter and the minister, Rajakannappan reiterated about the financial compensation offered. When the reported asked money may not be the only solution, the minister asked, “What can be done?” When the journalist retorted that it was for the minister to explain what can be done, the minister said, “Government is filing cases,” and mentioned the Pocso Act, which appeared irrelevant to the context.

On June 20, M Roshini Kumar, daughter of migrant workers from Jharkhand (Manoj Munda and Monica Devi), was playing outside her home in Pachamalai tea estate when a leopard attacked, dragging her into the nearby plantation. After an 18-hour search, her body was found 300m away from her home. This marked the third fatal leopard attack on children of migrant workers in Valparai since April 2023.

Senior forest officials TNIE spoke to said the minister's remark was only a slip of the tongue and he did not mean any disrespect. They pointed out that the Tamil Nadu government has increased compensation for victims of wildlife attacks from `5 lakh to `10 lakh, with a `10 crore corpus for swift disbursal.

The event was organised for the second batch of mahouts and cavadis (assistants), who recently returned after undergoing training in Thailand, to share their experience, according to the report by The New Indian Express.

It can be recalled that Minister Rajakannappan, who represents the Mudukulathur constituency in Ramanathapuram, was stripped of the transport portfolio in 2022 after a Block Development Officer of the district, who belonged to a Scheduled Caste, accused the minister of using casteist remarks and threatening him.