Novel Fencing To Elephants

As the ever expanding human settlements occupy the natural habitat of wild animals, leading to shrunken space and food in the wild, the animals turn their attention to the settlements in search of food. This is what is happening along the Terai belt, especially in the eastern districts, where herds of wild elephants come from across the Indian border and unleash rampage and terror every year. People trampled to death at night, destroyed houses and damaged crops are in the news repeatedly. This is something that has caused sleepless nights for the people and a matter of enigma for conservationists. Amid the bitter reality of shrinking habitat and dwindling food availability in the forest, human-wildlife conflict is an emerging issue in many countries of the world including Nepal. 

Though elephant rampage takes place in many Terai districts, Jhapa witnesses probably the highest number of such cases. The tale of terror continues despite various efforts applied to tackle it. News reports say that the number of elephants in an invading herd has been increasing over the years instead of going down. This makes dealing with the jumbo terror even more formidable and challenging. Various methods have been used in the past to fight the menace of wild elephant raids, most of them hostile with the aim of scaring them away. But the hungry animals also turn angry in response to the tactics adopted to chase them away. But now, forest officials have learned a lesson and changed the approach to handle the elephant terror. They have adopted a friendlier method this time. 

The new strategy tries to engage and repulse them by addressing their hunger that is the main reason that makes them travel into Nepal and invade crops and households for food. The Division Forest Office in Jhapa has come up with a plan to plant fruit trees along the corridor through which herds of wild elephants pass into the residential areas. This is thought to be the right way to engage and divert the attention of the animals as they migrate into Nepal in search of food. Jeevan Pathak of the forest office says that this innovative measure is expected to reduce the prevailing human-elephant tension. The Division Forest Office will collaborate with the local community forest groups to plant mango, banana, guava and bamboo plants along the elephant corridor. 

Numerous methods have been used in the past to drive out the wild elephants such as hitting with spears, raising electric fences and burning chili powder. However, these methods have failed to solve the problem completely. The real problem seems to have been identified that these animals are hungry and weak and doing anything in search of food. The animals are sweet toothed and are addicted to raid sugarcane fields. They raid homes in search of homemade liquor and food items. Once they consume liquor, they grow wilder and more dangerous. It is natural the animals will continue to show ferocious behavior as long as they are hungry. We can hope that the new method of 'food fencing' will keep them occupied along the corridor and the homes and lives will be spared. But in the long run, there should be a plan of habitat expansion and forest protection where food and water are available aplenty for the jumbo animals.