The Forest Department has redesigned elephant-proof trenches (EPTs). It also wants to lay fences using scrapped railway tracks to prevent wild elephants from raiding human habitation.
A senior official told Express that existing EPTs have failed to deter elephants from straying out of Bandipur and Nagarahole National Parks.
Many EPTs were filled by villagers to pass their cattle inside forests for grazing. This has made it easy for pachyderms to cross the EPTs, he added.
The new EPTs would be three-metres deep, three metres across at the top and one-and-a-half metre across at the base.
“We are optimistic that this new design will prevent wild elephants from crossing over,” he added.
The existing EPTs would also be widened and strengthened and solar fencing erected at all exit points on the borders of Bandipur and Nagarahole National Parks.
Over hundreds of EPTs have become ineffective for lack of maintenance. With the increase in the number of incidents of pachyderms straying into smaller towns near the two national parks, the department has decided to try out new methods to control the man-elephant conflict. Though this is quite expensive, it would be erected at places where incidents of wild elephants entering human habitations are more, he added.