KASARAGOD: On March 12, the Karadka Block panchayat launched a Rs 3.33-crore project to build a 29-km hanging solar-cum-electric fence to protect five panchayats from marauding elephants. After more than a month, the work has barely begun.
Farmers, who are losing their crops and patience every day, said they cannot wait for the solar fence to be completed, adding that the government should immediately push the 12 elephants that have camped at Muliyar gram panchayat back into the Karnataka forest. "We are not only losing our crops to the elephants. Now, the threat to our lives has also increased," said C Ramakrishnan, president of the Annakaryam (Elephantine Matter) Farmers Collective, a civil society group formed to press the government to find an immediate and lasting solution to the man-animal conflict.
The Annakaryam Collective circulated a form among the residents of Delampady, Karadka, Muliyar, Kuttikol and Bedadka gram panchayats to estimate the extent of their loss. The collective found that 390 farmers have lost crops and properties worth Rs 42 crore since October 2019. "But the last time the Department of Forest compensated a farmer for a wild animal attack was in 2017," said T Gopinathan Nair of Kanathur in Muliyar.
The elephants had raided his 10 acres at least six times destroying arecanut trees, plantains, coconut trees and a huge network of irrigation pipelines. But he applied for compensation only once because of the cumbersome process. "That application is pending since September 7, 2020," said Nair.
The Annakaryam Collective's main WhatsApp group is houseful with 256 members and every morning around 2 am, it starts buzzing with voice messages from distraught farmers. "This has been happening since October 2019. The 10 to 12 elephants that arrived then never left," said Ramakrishnan. They found a perfect oasis on the bank of the Payaswini River, with easy access to farm lands in the five gram panchayats.
In the early hours of Saturday (April 16), it was the turn of Karthiyani to send an SOS in the WhatsApp group. Around eight elephants were rampaging through her plantain garden at Bathakumri on the banks of the Payaswini. "They destroyed around 20 ready-to-harvest plantain trees, two arecanut trees and two juvenile coconut trees," she told TNIE. The elephants entered her sister Sarojini's adjacent property and damaged the crops there.
Earlier, crackers used to scare the elephants away. "Now they stand there and enjoy it as if it is some temple festival," said K Suresh Babu of Muliyar.
But when irked, the elephants charge at the people bursting crackers. Two weeks ago, Raveendran Chettathodu (43) had a close escape when an elephant slapped him with its trunk.
Raveendran, a civilian member of the Rapid Response Team (RRT), ended up in hospital with a broken arm and had to undergo a surgery.
Savithri Bhat, an elderly farmer with around 10 acres of land at Katipallam near Kanathur, is not waiting for the Karadka block panchayat's hanging solar fence. She is fencing her property with her own money. "It will cost us around Rs 3 lakh but we don't have a choice. The elephants raid our property every other day," she said.
Elephants are not her only problem, The farmland along the Payaswini is frequented by wild boars and monkeys. "We have 350 coconut trees but we barely get any coconuts. All are taken away by the monkeys and the trees are felled by the elephants for the leaves," she said.
The elephants also destroy the irrigation pipes criss-crossing her property. "They know there is high-pressure water in the pipeline. So they break the pipe and stand astride to cool their belly," said Gopinathan Nair.
Around Rs 45,000 worth of pipes and manpower is needed to irrigate one acre, said farmers. "If the land is not plain, the cost could rise to Rs 50,000. To lay the pipeline on 10 acres, we need around Rs 5 lakh. The elephants destroy them in one night," said Nair.
Protest march to DFO's office on April 21
The Department of Forest -- the implementing agency for the 29km-long solar fence in Karadka block panchayat -- said on March 12 that the first phase of the work would be completed in a month. But on April 12, Kerala Police Housing & Construction Corp Ltd (KPHCCL), which is building the fence, just started clearing the ground and felling trees for the project, said a project engineer. He said there was a delay in documentation. The 8km-long hanging solar fence from Vellakana to Chamakochi in Delampady panchayat (first phase) would be completed by May 31, he said.
Delampady, Karadka, Muliyar, Kuttikol and Bedadka gram panchayats and Karadka block panchayat pitched in to raise Rs 3.33 crore for the project. "The department is showing scant respect for people's lives, money or property. They should have stuck to the deadline," said Krishnaraj E B, a farmer in Chembilamka in Muliyar panchayat.
The least the Forest Department could do is push the elephants back into the first, he said. The Annakaryam (Elephantine Matter) Farmers Collective said its members are going to take out a march to the Divisional Forest Office on April 21 to protest against the department's ineptness in securing the lives and properties of farmers.