Guwahati, September 5: Solar-powered fences are utilised as an efficient and proven tool for mitigation of human elephant conflict (HEC) in hotspots subject to cooperation from the HEC-affected community in installation, maintenance and management of such a fence.
These fences are considered potent enough to change the life of the HEC-hit community for the better besides facilitating coexistence with wild elephants.
Premier biodiversity conservation organisation, Aaranyak (www.aaranyak.org) which has been working with community in many HEC affected areas in Assam and Meghalaya for installation and management of solar fences.
Since, community members’ involvement in installation and management of solar fences requires certain skills on their part, Aaranyak therefore, organises training for the volunteer community members on priority basis before engaging them in installation and maintenance of solar fences.
Aaranyak in partnership with British Asian Trust and with support from Darwin Initiative conducted two such training programmes for community members on solar fence installation and maintenance (management) recently.
One of the training programmes was organised in Sadiya of Tinsukia in Assam on August 18-19 and another at Ujani Majuli of Majuli district of Assam on August 21-22 last.
The module of the 2-day long training comprised of both theory and on field demonstration on installation of solar fence. The training programmes were attended by members of Solar Fence Management Committee formed by local community , members of RRU (Rapid Respose Unit) and village leaders and common people.
The training programmes were participated by total 116 community members including 49 in Sadiya while 67 others participated in the training at Ujani Majuli, according to Aaranyak official Zakir Islam Bora.
The resource persons engaged by Aaranyak-British Asian Trust in providing the training included Dr Bibhuti Lahkar, Anjan Baruah , Dibakar Nayak and Roushan Basumutary, Zakir Islam Bora, Rubul Tanti.
Auro Shashwat from British Asian Trust was present during the training programme organised in Sadiya.
The training programme for each of the HEC affected sites was designed as per the prevailing site-specific issues of HEC and what has already been done by the community on its own to tackle the HEC.
The participating community members were sensitised on the ability of the local community to get involved in the installation and management of solar fences that are meant for safeguarding the community in respect of the HEC and mitigation of the conflict for the benefit of both human beings and wild elephants.
The experts sensitised the participating community members on different types of solar fences, on various components of solar fence and their functions, installation procedure in detail.
They were sensitised on importance of solar fence maintenance and how to maintain a solar fence and tipped on how to rectify a solar fence if it malfunctions for various reason.
All technical fine points ranging for pole size and length, cutting for wire for the fence are detailed to the participants who are also taught on how to tie insulators, allowed hands on experience of installations of the fence and use of digital voltmeters for checking and testing fence performances.
The performance of the trainees during the hands on demonstration is also assessed by the expert trainers to be sure about the ability of the community members to shoulder the task of effective installation and maintenance of solar fence to be installed in their area.