BENGALURU: After two decades of suffering crop loss due to jumbo attacks, at least 49 farmers from five villages falling in the revenue lands near Chamarajanagar territorial division of Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) Tiger Reserve, have given up parts of their cultivable land free of cost to help control movement of elephant herds.
The lands they parted with are now being used to dig elephant-proof trenches (EPTs) and solar-powered fences (SPFs) to control the movement of the rampaging herds to minimise man-elephant conflict.
The farmers of the villages bordering Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve were experiencing severe crop loss from October- March, when 60-80-strong elephant herds would enter their fields in Karnataka and raid the crops.
Umesh H, Range Forest Officer, Chamarajanagar Territorial Division, said every year farmers from Moodalahasahalli, Arkalvadi, Madagalapura, Honnahalli and Bissill Avadi villages would cry foul. “A year-and-a-half ago, we proposed to the farmers, panchayat members and locals to barricade the elephant path as a solution. The farmers were convinced and willingly agreed to part with portions of their land for construction of EPTs and laying SPFs.”
Land acquisition was completed in December 2023, and from January, EPT and SPF works started simultaneously. Farmers voluntarily gave 2-3 guntas each. A total of 6.5 km-long trench, 3-metre-wide has now been constructed.
To mitigate man-elephant conflict, the state government was giving crop loss compensation to farmers annually. In 2022-23, Rs 39 lakh ex-gratia was paid. But this year, from April 2023 till date, the department paid-ex gratia of only Rs 6lakh. “The amount has come down after construction of the trench,” said forest department officials.
‘Farmers working with forest staffers on trenches’
“So we decided to part with a portion of our land to avoid suffering further loss,” the villager added.
Forest department sources said: “The EPT could have been constructed in Satymanagala by Tamil Nadu forest department officials, but since it has not been done, we did it on revenue land after informing the revenue department officials.”
Deep J Contractor, Director, BRT, said this is the first time such a thing has been done. “Earlier, farmers would surround forest staffers and threaten them, but now they are working with the staffers to complete the trench.
In fact, they did the ground breaking ceremony also. Due legal agreements have been signed by each farmer to part with portions of land for this,” he said.