The need to provide supplementary accident insurance to field forest staff in India had been felt for a long time by forest officers, as well as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Over the years, as the demand for timber and non-timber forest produce including the illegal demand for animal parts used for medicinal purposes, increased, the forest department suddenly found itself in a hapless situation where poachers and smugglers were easily outgunning them.It was with this in mind that WTI initiated a dialogue in 1999 with one of India ‘s largest public sector insurance companies, United India Insurance Company (UIIC), urging them to design a special package that would involve 50,000 field forest staff in India .
The package designed by UIIC 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.
For the scheme to be made applicable in a state, the requisite state government’s approval as well as a list of eligible employees, is a pre-condition. A total of 25,000 persons were insured and permissions received from 15 states covering all important forest areas in India .
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.
In case of a claim, the officer concerned sends the relevant documents to WTI, which verifies and processes the claim, and forwards it to UIIC. UIIC 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.
