Live wires put up by farmers to save standing crops pose threat to tigers
PIPPALKOTI (ADILABAD): Many farmers have set up live electric wires to save their cotton and red gram crops from invasions of wild boars. These are posing a life-threat to tigers in Bhimpur and Jainad mandals of Adilabad district.
Tigers are feeding on the wild boars and not a single kill was found involving a deer and Nilgai in the area. Clearly, there was no strong prey base in the area, officials said.
Sindam Raju of Pipalkoti village of Bheempur mandal said many farmers use solar-power-linked fencing to protect their standing crops from wild boars since they are destroying crops on a large scale.
He said many farmers of Pipalkoti village had their agricultural lands near Thamsi- K village and they have to visit their lands every day and return with the cotton yield. There was huge demand for solar batteries to give connection to the existing fencing.
A farmer said putting up live electric fences was common to save their standing crops. Very few farmers are visiting their agriculture fields at night following the increase in tiger movement in these areas. A female tiger with its three cubs was moving in and around their agriculture fields in the Hattighat and Dargah areas on the outskirts of the Pippalkoti, he said.
Locals say four tigers are frequently visiting the small lake near the Dargah to quench their thirst at night and returning to the bushes in the Hattighat area where they stay. The barren land of nearly 3,000 acres has become like a forest area over a period of time and a possible habitat to the tigers.
Some farmers set up electric fencing around their agriculture fields by giving connection to electricity lines at night time. Such fencing may cause a life threat to the tigers moving in the areas.
Thati Naveen of Pipalkoti village said many farmers are engaging women labourers from bordering Maharashtra for cotton picking since local agriculture laborers are refusing to do this work for fear of tiger attacks. A large number of cotton fields are seen with cotton bolls since picking was not taking place in the Bhimpur areas.
A forest team of nearly 15 staff including animal trackers and watchers led by FRO Gulab Singh was monitoring tiger movement in the area at night via patrolling and field-level tracking. However, the forest staff is not clear whether or not the tigers returned to their original habitat, the Tipeshwar Tiger Reserve.
