Behind the Wayanad elephant damages: the 1980 Kerala rules that only set a floor for compensation

Background

Behind the damages upheld for the Wayanad farmer stands a short set of State rules and a rule of law about them. Compensation for wild animal attacks in Kerala is paid under a 1980 set of State rules — the Rules for Payment of Compensation to Victims of Attack by Wild Animals — read with a later government order. Justice Mohammed Nias C P, relying on the earlier decision in Wildlife Warden and others versus Thadathil Saramma and others, held that the sum those rules fix is only a minimum ex gratia payment: they set a floor, and cannot stop a court from awarding what is just and reasonable. The State's liability is strict, so a victim need not prove negligence, and it is no defence that the animal was never owned or held by the State. The State must take reasonable preventive steps around homes and farmland, though it need not fence a whole forest. The ex gratia scheme is therefore not the only remedy; a victim may also sue in a civil court, a right the court tied to Article 21.