MADIKERI: The tentacle solar fencing project, aimed at reducing man-elephant conflict in Kodagu district, kick started in Kushalnagar-Thithimathi forest range. The 67.91 lakh project will have improved fencing hanging from 20 ft above and promises to keep the check the conflict.
Green tall posts were planted beside the roads bordering Maldare and Chikka Reshme forest area and steel wires were hung from these posts as opposed to the earlier fences that ran across the polls vertically. Solar power generation systems too were connected and had a tagline ‘save wildlife, save forest’ imprinted on them.
Forest officials confirmed that the fencing would be carried out across 24 km of the stretch. One km fencing with two posts will cost `2.80 lakh and the tender for this project was grabbed by Mysuru bidder Ambarish Gowda. While the old solar fences in the range were blamed for their under-maintenance, the new project promises to overcome this issue as the bidder has signed the contract agreeing upon to maintain the installed solar fences for a span of three years.