The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare on 18 November 2025 announced a major expansion of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), recognising the modalities for covering crop loss due to Wild Animal Attacks and Paddy Inundation under the scheme. Under the revised framework, crop loss due to wild animal attack will be recognised as the fifth Add-on Cover under the Localised Risk category. States will notify the list of wild animals responsible for crop damage and identify vulnerable districts or insurance units based on historical data. Farmers will be required to report losses within 72 hours using the Crop Insurance App by uploading geotagged photographs. The modalities have been prepared in accordance with the PMFBY Operational Guidelines, ensuring a scientific, transparent and operationally feasible framework for nationwide implementation, and will be rolled out from Kharif 2026. The Ministry noted that for years, farmers across India have suffered crop losses from attacks by elephants, wild boars, nilgai, deer, and monkeys, particularly in regions near forests, wildlife corridors, and hilly terrains; until now, such losses often went uncompensated. Paddy Inundation had been removed from the localised calamity category in 2018 due to concerns about moral hazard and difficulty of assessing submerged crops, leading to a protection gap in flood-prone districts. Based on recommendations of an expert committee approved by Union Agriculture Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan, both risks are now reintroduced. The wild animal cover is expected to significantly benefit farmers in States with high human–wildlife conflict including Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, and the Himalayan and North-Eastern States such as Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh. Reintroducing Paddy Inundation will particularly benefit coastal and flood-prone States including Odisha, Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand.