Rahul Gandhi on Sunday visited the families of victims of wild animal attacks in Wayanad, his Lok Sabha constituency, before holding a meeting with the district authorities and urging the Kerala government to release the monetary compensation immediately.

He said he could not reach chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan over the phone to address the issue, but urged the state government to take all necessary steps to resolve the vexed issue of human-animal conflict in the state that has claimed three lives over the last three weeks.

“I tried to call the chief minister this morning (but) he was not available. I’ll try again,” Rahul told reporters in Kalpetta after attending the review meeting where he urged the authorities to clear the compensation at the earliest.

“I would request the government to act quickly and aggressively,” Rahul said. The immediate need to pay compensation, measures to check animal attacks and a quick clearance to a well-equipped medical college hospital in Kalpetta are some of the demands that Rahul said he made at the review meeting.

He also sought an increase in the size of the forest department’s rapid response team, currently the only early-warning system on wild animals entering human settlements.

Rahul, who took time off from his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra and arrived late on Saturday at Kannur, began his day very early.

He visited the families of three of the victims of the spate of wild animal attacks and assured them of all help, including interventions with the state and central governments to find lasting solutions to the threat to lives and livelihood.

He first visited the kin of Ajeesh who was killed by a wild elephant on February 10. Ajeesh was trampled to death by the tusker who charged into his residential compound in Mananthavady in the district.

Rahul then met the family of V.P. Paul, a temporary watcher with the Vana Samrakshana Samithi (Forest Protection Forum) who was killed by a wild elephant in Pulpally on Friday, before meeting the family of Prajeesh, a victim of a tiger attack in December.

“It is clear (that) there is a problem here. There is a problem with the medical college (and) there is a problem with the compensation. I’ve spoken to family members here who have not got their compensation,” he noted.

“When a family loses a member, especially a poor family, it is not good enough to give the compensation after a long time. The compensation needs to come immediately because they need the money,” Rahul said, reflecting what he gathered from the victims’ families.

While there is a medical college in Mananthavady, 30km from Kalpetta — the district headquarters — it is not well-equipped and patients are often referred to the medical college hospital in neighbouring Kozhikode around 90km away.

“I want the administration to understand that the people of Wayanad are struggling with this (human-animal conflict). It is creating trauma and panic and it needs to be looked into.”

But he refused to get drawn into political questions like why state forest minister A.K. Saseendran had not visited the affected areas yet.

"This is not a political meeting and it will be inappropriate for me to get into political issues. I’ve come here because I think this is a very important issue that Wayanad is facing and I do not want to digress by getting into politics,” he said.

He further told the district authorities that the government should bear all medical expenses of the victims of at least the recent spate of animal attacks.