Autonomous non-profit organizations The Amur Tiger Center and the Far Eastern Leopards Center signed insurance contracts with the SOGAZ insurance group. Under the terms of the agreements, SOGAZ will compensate for the damage that may be caused to third parties as a result of the attack of the Far Eastern leopards living in Russia and Amur tigers.
“Although over the past 100 years, not a single case of unprovoked leopard attacks on humans has been registered, it is important to remember that these animals are formidable predators and can attack livestock that farmers in the surrounding farms breed. But the greatest problem is the attacks of leopards on spotted deer in deer farms. Over the past year, we have recorded at least a dozen of such cases,” says Elena Gangalo, general director of the Far Eastern Leopards autonomous non-profit organization, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation.
The insurance amount for each insurance contract is 2 million rubles. The amount of reimbursement may vary depending on which animal was affected. For example, for the death of a deer, the insurance payment will be up to 100 thousand rubles. At the same time, the owner of the farm in the area of the Amur tiger and Far Eastern leopard is not required to conclude an agreement in advance with SOGAZ. When an incident occurs, all of its materials, collected according to the rules, are transferred to the Amur Tiger Center or the Far Eastern Leopards autonomous non-profit organization, after the above-mentioned organizations apply to the insurance company for damages.
“Far Eastern leopards and Amur tigers are extremely rare animals, they have been under state protection for many decades,” says Sergey Aramilev, deputy general director of the Amur Tiger Center. - “Along with the fight against poaching, it is extremely important to provide a civilized way to resolve conflicts that may arise as a result of the attack of these predators on domestic and farm animals. Thanks to the insurance contract, the damage from such attacks will be further compensated at the expense of the insurance company.”
The guarantor of the accuracy of the information provided by citizens on the inflicting damage to them by rare predators is the specially authorized bodies of the subjects of the Russian Federation, in particular, the hunting supervision services, which include special groups for resolving conflict situations. Their main task is not to go to the place of the incident and identify the culprit, and if they are rare cats, draw up a diagram of the scene of the incident and issue other documents that will serve as a basis for compensation for damage. The validity of insurance contracts comes into force on December 2015.
“We are pleased to be able to contribute to the protection of such rare and beautiful animals as the Far Eastern leopard and the Amur tiger. Insurance protection will allow to resolve the issue of the source of compensation, which often arises in the event of an attack of wild animals under the protection of the state. We hope that this step will ultimately help preserve the population of the predators themselves,” says Ekaterina Dvoinikova, head of SOGAZ’s public relations department.
The Far Eastern leopard is the rarest member of the cat family. Listed in the Red Book of Russia and the International Red Book. Today, there are about 80 of them worldwide, most of which live in the territory of Primorsky Krai. It is here that for their protection the Cedar Pad Reserve and other specially protected natural territories have been operating for many years, on the basis of which in 2012 the Land of the Leopard National Park was created.
The Amur tiger is one of the smallest subspecies of the tiger, the most northern tiger. Listed in the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and in the Red Book of the Russian Federation. The Amur tiger is distributed mainly in the Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krai, besides, there are visits in the Jewish Autonomous and Amur regions. According to the latest records, the Amur tiger population numbers at least 520 individuals.
SOGAZ Insurance Group unites insurance companies SOGAZ JSC, IC TRANSNEFT, Insurance Company SK Alrosa LLC, Insurance Company SOGAZ-MED, SOGAZ-ZHIZ IC LLC, SOT-TRANS LLC, SOVAG (Germany), “SOGAZ ado Novi Sad (Serbia), SOGAZ International Medical Center, SOGAZ-Medservice Service Medical Company. Currently, the regional network of the Group includes more than 800 divisions and sales offices throughout Russia.