The wild elephant menace has become a routine news in media today. It has not yet come down in many parts of the State though the Forest Department has erected power fences and Elephant-proof Trenches (EPT) surrounding the forests.
However, Kajoor and Yedavare villages, 10 km from here, are different from other villages. The two villages, surrounded by reserve forests and Harangi backwaters, are wild elephant-free zone now thanks to the cooperation and active participation of villagers in controlling the menance. The two villages were facing rampant elephant menace just two years ago despite having a solar fence and EPT.
The elephants were entering the villages through the solar fence owing to its poor maintenance by the Forest Department. The department was also facing a shortage of staff and there were funds to maintain the solar fence.
Enthusiastic Range Forest Officer (RFO) V A Cariappa convened a meeting with village leaders and suggested them to form a committee to maintain the fence. The villagers formed a committee and decided to maintain the 7-km solar fence two years ago and they succeeded in preventing the elephants from entering the villages.
When contacted, village committe secretary Machanda Prakash Belliappa told Express that the villagers are fully cooperating in maintaining the fence. “We work through mass Shramadan,” he added. He said that every land owner provides labour. Every day they check the power passing in the fence and have engaged two workers to look into it.
Once in three months, they clear weeds as fence will become useless if weeds surround it. The committee even sprayed weediside to remove weeds through Shramadan. Prakash said the committee has `50,000 in its account reserved for the maintenance of the fence.
RFO Cariappa said that most paddy fields and coffee plantations in the district is surrounded by forests. “If all villagers follow this model they can save crops from elephants. We have also sent a proposal to the government to increase the EPT depth from 6 feet to 9 feet for effectiveness,” he stated.
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