The Bengal government has awarded Panbari forest village in the Alipurduar district for setting up a solar fence to protect their area from elephants without causing much harm to the animals.

Sources said the villagers had almost stopped cultivation because of the marauding
elephants.

“The elephants would damage our crops and vegetables and we had almost stopped cultivating them. However, in the past six months, we have not had any elephants entering our fields,” said Sujit Sarkar, the president of the Panbari Joint Forest Management Committee.

Panbari is in the Alipurduar 2 block and near the Buxa Tiger Reserve.

Solare fences erected by the committee with help from the forest department kept the elephants away. “The fence has a length of 4km and wires hang at a height of six to seven feet,” Sarkar said.

Sources have said when an elephant comes in contact with the fence, it will receive an electric shock of 11 volts for three microseconds. The shock will disturb the animal but won’t harm it.

“Usually, the height of an adult elephant is about 10-12 feet but the wires of the
solar fences hang at around six to seven feet from the ground level. The animal is seen to be suffering from a little jerk which prevents it from entering the village,’ said another villager.

In the past, it was observed that the traditional fence connected to electricity was at times destroyed by elephant herds. “In order to increase the voltage of the fence, some villagers used to connect it to their domestic power line, causing severe harm to the animals,” said a source.

The 4km-long solar fence was set up at an estimated cost of ₹11 lakh that was used from the account of the forest management committee.

“Our initiative has been appreciated by the state government. We have received a trophy and a cash award of ₹75,000 from the government in Calcutta,” said Sakar.

The joint forest management committee became the runner-up and was given the award on July 14.