Solar power has brought hope for residents in at least 12 villages in Assam’s Udalguri district, who are struggling to reduce conflicts with wild elephants.
An 18-km solar powered fence has been installed at Nagrijuli area by Aaranyak, a biodiversity conservation group recently, which is likely to help over 15,000 villagers in their efforts to reduce conflict with the jumbos. Nagrijuli is one of the hotspots of human-elephant conflicts in Assam.
The solar-powered fences are fed by the power generated from solar sources, that includes solar panels, batteries and energisers. “These fences send sharp but non-lethal shock at regular intervals when an animal comes in contact with it. This acts as a psychological barrier for the intruding animals. The duration of the shock is 0.003 seconds,” Aaranyak said in a statement.
The fence has been installed by Aaranyak with the assistance of local community and Assam Forest Department. Elephant Family Foundation, India funded the project.
This comes at a time when Assam reported deaths of many wild elephants in electric wires, which are used by many residents as barriers against wild elephants. Man-elephant conflicts have become a big worry for residents in many villages including in Udalguri district. Such conflicts often lead to deaths (both human and jumbos) and destruction of houses and crops.
According to forest department, at least 100 elephants have died because of electrocution since 2011.
"The electric fences are lethal and lead to death of any animal or human being when they come in contact with it. The solar-powered electric fences, which are environment friendly and cost-effective, are now being used widely to reduce human-wildlife conflict across the country," Aaranyak said.
A 14-km fence was first erected from No. 1 Dongargaon to Arongajuli village and the second part of the fence of 4-km length was installed from Piplanee to Serchini village.
"Five units of solar-operated high-power fence machines were installed to run the fences. Nagrijuli was selected as the human-elephant conflict was negatively impacting the villagers for long," it said.
The solar-powered fence was formally handed over to the villagers on Friday (February 5) and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with village committees for five years for maintenance and smooth conduct of the fence.