A group of children in Assam’s Golaghat district are planning a lemony yet thorny treat to the elephant herds that often raid and destroy their houses and paddy fields.
While the growing conflict between the human and animals, mostly elephants, have caught the attention of conservationists across the world, a group of kids from a community school are working on a project to plant the thorny Assam lemon (A local variety of lemon found in Assam which has thorns) plants on the boundary of their homes to save them from raiding herds of elephants.
The kids of Thurajan village, located close to Nambor elephant reserve in Golaghat district often live in fear of raids by elephant herds. Some of the locals of the Thurajan village and adjoining areas have also built tree houses for taking shelter at night to save themselves from the raids of elephant herds, who not only destroys their houses but also gorge on the paddy cultivated by them with hard labour.
“They (the kids) are part of a Community School project aided by Child Network, Germany and implemented by Dimapur-based voluntary organization AIDA. The plan is to plant plants of Assam lemon to save their private vegetable gardens to keep the elephants at bay,” said Samir Bordoloi, who is leading the community school project.
The lemon project will also generate income for the family when the plants grows, he said.“Ours is a evening school where we try to bring in the school dropouts mainly from tea garden community and motivate them to join formal education,” he said adding that they have distributed 500 plants of Assam lemon to 25 students.
“Initially the students will plant the Assam lemon plants on the boundary of their private vegetable gardens. The results will be known in 2 to 3 years time, when the plants will grow. Once found to be successful, the model can be implemented in larger scale to avert the men-elephant conflict.
It may be mentioned here that a total of 386 people were killed due to man-animal conflicts in different parts of Assam in last five years even as 43 animals fell victim to the conflict with humans.
Assam environment and forest Minister Pramila Rani Brahma had recently said this in the State Assembly while replying to a question. While 68 people were killed in 2011 due to man-animal conflict, 83 people were killed in 2012. In 2013, 85 people were killed followed by killing of 53 people in 2014 due to conflicts with wild animals. last year 97 people were killed due to man-animal conflict, she said.
Brahma further added that 10 animals each were killed in humans in different parts of the state 2011, 1012, and in 2013. Eight animals were killed in 2014 followed by killing of another five in 2015.