Coexisting With Elephants - One Fence At A Time

Conflict between animals migrating or foraging for food, and local communities are reported from many parts of India, with crop raiding as the main form of conflict. WWF-India has been working to conserve elephant population by securing elephant habitats and addressing human–elephant conflict across four of its landscapes—Western Ghats Nilgiris in southern India, the northern bank of the Brahmaputra, Kaziranga and Karbi-Anglong, and in parts of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar.

The recently released elephant census data states that the species is now confined to four isolated landscapes in India in the north (Terai region), the North-East, central-east, and south India spread across 22 states. The census pegged the population in the southern part of India to 11,960 pachyderms, followed by the North- East (10,139). Over 70 per cent of the elephant population of the country is now found outside protected areas. Widespread land use change in elephant habitats largely driven by developmental activities has led to their fragmentation and degradation severely affecting their territories and migration routes.

Rohtash Singh, who owns a farm of an area of 3 ha adjacent to the forest, used to lose crops from more than half the area when elephants visited his crop fields. Efforts to guard the field from makeshift watchtowers to using firecrackers in an effort to drive the elephants away proved to be ineffective.

Kehripur village in Uttar Pradesh, which shares its boundary with Amangarh, a buffer zone of Corbett Tiger Reserve, has been prone to frequent raids by elephants and other herbivores. A rapid assessment survey in the area showed that the loss incurred was ₹40,000 per farmer, a substantial portion of the annual income of the farmers.

A 2-km long solar fence was set up, which protected 100 ha of agricultural land owned by about 30 farmers in the village. It uses five strands of live wire, at a height of about 6 feet. While WWF provided the equipment support for the fence, the installation was carried out by the farmers themselves. The farmers also arranged the poles required for the entire fence from their farms. The maintenance and monitoring of the fence is done by the community.