In a move to reduce the increasing incidents of man-elephant conflict, the Karnataka Forest Department has launched a rail fencing project at Nagarahole National Park. The authorities will use discarded tracks and sleepers procured from the Railways to build the fence as it will be strong. This initiative is apparently based on a South African experiment where a similar rail fence project was conceived by Graham Armstrong, and the fence was installed around the Addo National Park.
The project involves erecting a 33-km-long rail fence along the forest boundary in the first phase, for which Rs212 crore has already been sanctioned by the State Government. According to Karnataka Forest Minister Ramanath Rai, the rail fence project will cover the entire forest boundary around wildlife zones in the State, especially around Bandipur and Nagarahole where incidents of human-elephant conflict are the highest.
Experts believe this initiative would support the existing elephant-proof trenches and will not affect the movement of elephant herds and other wildlife. These wildlife corridors are essential not only for the free movement of animals for sustenance but also help in gene transfer from one herd to another as they allow for mixing of elephant populations, thus preventing inbreeding.
The experts who are supporting this project say this is no barrier against other forms of wildlife, including tigers and leopards, which can jump over such fences while wild boars can sneak in through the gaps. Officials say that though Bandipur and Nagarahole forests have Elephant Proof Trenches (EPT) and solar fencing, the EPTs are useless unless maintained.
Karnataka is home to at least 18 per cent of the total tiger population and 25 per cent of elephants in the country. There are 85 tigers and 1,300 elephants in Nagarahole forests alone. “The experiment on the elephant-proof barricade has been a success and the project has been taken up at a cost of Rs212 crore. It can be replicated in other forests, depending on their terrain,” the Minister says.
The experiment follows failure of earlier methods to keep elephants away from human habitations. When trenches were dug, elephants bridged the gaps by filling them with mud and when solar-powered fences were erected, they used wooden logs to cross over from forests.