ANNOUNCEMENTS
The impacts and consequences associated with human-elephant conflict are highly catastrophic in nature. As forest cover is getting reduced at an alarming rate, elephants stray out from the forests and intrude into nearby settlements in search of food causing much damage and destruction to human lives, property as well as agricultural fields. Elephants are, in turn being killed, electrocuted and poisoned in retaliation. Sonitpur district is a part of the North-Bank landscape which was categorized by WWF as a high-priority area for conservation of endangered Asian elephants. As per WWF, 214 elephant mortalities and 480 human mortalities have been documented in a period of 28 years (1990-2018) in the Sonitpur district of Assam. Community-based field surveys were organized in 25 fence sites located all over the district. 60 key-informant interviews and 35 focus-group discussions were organized in the respective fence sites. A criterion consisting of a list of conditions was prepared based on Ostrom’s principles for the purpose of rigorous analysis of the qualitative data. Based on the criterion, a semi-structured questionnaire was also prepared which was being pilot-tested before finalisation of the questions. The power fence assessment survey exposed that majority of the fence sites (80%) were functioning effectively in the respective study area and are being successfully maintained either by the community or by a third party (WWF, Forest department, Apeejay). Only three out of 25 (12%) fences were categorized as failed/poorly maintained sites. Two out of 25 (8%) fences couldn’t be categorized as either successfully maintained or failed/poorly maintained sites (unclassified). In the successful and the unclassified fences (88%) sites, community maintenance and participation was present in 52% of the sites, third party involvement was in 39% and combined involvement was present in 9% of the sites. It was also observed that elephants have not learned to use any alternative means to beat the fence and intrude into the respective settlement. Since the fence wires were single-stranded located at a height of 5 feet from the ground, except one which was observed to be triple-stranded, it didn’t impede the movement of the regular users. Moreover, gates were also present at regular intervals to facilitate movement of big vehicles. Therefore there were no reported cases of deliberate fence sabotaging to facilitate movement in the respective sites. The categorization of the fences into successful, unclassified and failure was being made based on the conditions enlisted in the criterion/checklist. The unclassified fences were also functioning in the respective site yet gaps were observed in the fence due to which the effectiveness of the fence line was reduced up to some extent. Lastly, suggestions such as organizing meetings and awareness campaigns, filling up the gaps, strict enforcement of rules and regulations were being recommended to ensure long-term effectiveness of the fences and promote harmonious co-existence of both elephants and human beings.
Keywords: Electrified fences, human-elephant conflict, mitigation, energizer, Asian elephants, crop-raiding, etc.
