PM Fasal Bima Yojana: Govt brings wild animal attacks, paddy inundation under crop insurance

The government on Tuesday approved new risk covers under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), bringing crop losses due to wild animal attacks and paddy inundation within the ambit of the flagship farm insurance scheme from Kharif 2026.

In a major relief for farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare said it has finalised modalities to recognise crop loss from wild animal depredation as a localised risk and reintroduced paddy inundation under the localised calamity category.

The move follows long-standing demands from several states, the ministry said in a statement.

Crop loss due to attacks by wild animals, including elephants, wild boars, nilgai, deer and monkeys, will now be treated as the fifth add-on cover under localised risks.

States will specify the animals responsible for damage and identify vulnerable districts or insurance units based on historical patterns.

Farmers will have to report losses within 72 hours through the Crop Insurance App, uploading geo-tagged photos, the ministry said.

Such losses were previously not covered under PMFBY, leaving farmers in forest-adjacent, hilly and wildlife-corridor regions without compensation despite rising incidents of crop damage.

The ministry said the new framework ensures a “scientific, transparent and operationally feasible” mechanism for assessment and settlement.

The reintroduction of paddy inundation as an insured event is also expected to close a major protection gap for growers in coastal and flood-prone states.

The cover was removed in 2018 due to concerns over moral hazard and the difficulty of assessing submerged fields, but recurrent flooding has continued to hit paddy farmers hard.

The modalities were finalised based on recommendations of an expert committee constituted by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, and have been approved by Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

The new covers are likely to benefit farmers across states that face high human–wildlife conflict, such as Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and several Himalayan and Northeastern states, including Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh.

Paddy growers in flood-prone regions of Odisha, Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand are also expected to gain.

“Together with the inclusion of Wild Animal Attack, these additions make PMFBY more inclusive, responsive and farmer-friendly, further strengthening the resilience of India’s crop insurance system,” the ministry said.