COIMBATORE: To prevent wild elephants from entering the dump yard and consuming garbage, the Somayampalayam Panchayat officials have decided to construct a compound wall or electric fence in the area.
The step was based on the district Collector, Kranthi Kumar Pati’s instruction, as the dump yard is located close to Maruthamalai forest.
The animals have been visiting the dump yard frequently and eating plastic. Incidentally, napkins and masks were also found in the elephant dung.
P Shanmugasundaram, Coimbatore Wildlife Conservation Trust (CWCT) secretary said, “After being attracted to the smell of garbage, elephants have been visiting the dump yards frequently. Hence, a compound wall or electric fence would be a viable solution to prevent elephants from entering the dump yard.
As the elephants have been eating the leftover food from the dump yard, there has been a change in their behaviour. Initially, a mother elephant and her calf would visit the yard frequently and they started targeting houses and damaging the kitchen looking for rice and groceries stored inside the house. Now, around eight elephants target the kitchens of houses located in the surroundings of Somayampalayam, Maruthamalai foothills Dhaliyur and Kembanur.”
Official sources from the panchayat said that they have taken all precautionary measures to prevent the elephants from entering the yard such as setting up elephant-proof trenches (EPT) and barbed wire fence around the yard. Now they are planning to set up a compound wall or electric fence.
P Rangaraj Somayampalayam Panchayat president said, “The total area of the yard is two acres and a total of three tonnes of waste has been dumped here. We are expecting some funds under the Namakku Naame scheme. However, we have not finalised whether to construct a compound wall or an electric fence since we need Rs 70 lakh for the construction of a compound wall. However, just 20 lakh is required to set up an electric fence. We are in discussion about which is suitable for the panchayat and we will come out with a plan soon.”
He added, “We have chosen the yard far away and are also monitoring the yard by fixing six CCTV cameras round the clock. The total number of garbage being dumped has come down as we have started segregating the waste and producing manure.”