Karnataka: Jumbos saved but boar, deer at risk

Chamrajanagar: The rail fences on the borders of Bandipur National Park might have brought down cases of elephants straying into agricultural fields on the periphery but the fences have enough open space to allow wild boar and deer to duck under and cross over to the fields! This has prompted farmers to suggest to forest officials to attach chain mesh at the bottom of the rail fence as a preventive measure.

Inspector General of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), southern zone Somashekar, Additional Principal Conservator of Forests Rangarao and other officials met the farmers on the periphery of Omkar range of Bandipur National Park on Wednesday to study the effectiveness of the rail fences in mitigating human-animal conflicts. Sheshamurthy, a farmer of Siddegowdanahundi, was one among many farmers who attracted the attention of forest officials to the raids by wild boar and deer and suggested chain mesh on the rail fences to stop them.  

He, however said, it was too early to judge the effectiveness of rail fences in preventing elephants from entering fields since the jumbos usually raid crops during the harvest. He added that elephants are  smart enough to surpass the fenced area of the forest to enter fields.   

His friend, Iqbal, told officials that farmers suffering crop damage from wild boar and deer, are not covered under crop compensation and suitable action has to be taken to prevent wild boar from sneaking into the fields for which chain mesh would be an ideal option.