A small town in southern India has rolled out an innovative solar-powered “invisible” fencing system designed to alert residents of approaching wildlife. The system makes some residents feel safer, but several challenges remain before it can effectively prevent human-elephant conflict, reports contributor Gowthami Subramaniam in a video produced by Mongabay India.
Valparai, a town in the state of Tamil Nadu, is a mosaic of tea plantations and settlements surrounded by the dense rainforests of the Western Ghats, a mountainous biodiversity hotspot. Locals frequently encounter wildlife, including Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), leopards (Panthera pardus) and gaur wild cattle (Bos gaurus). Elephants are particularly dangerous when passing between forests and settlements as they can damage property and even cause injuries and deaths.
Subramaniam reports that to keep both people and elephants safe, the Tamil Nadu Forest Department has introduced a smart fencing system, powered by solar energy. Standalone posts with sensors trigger a sharp alarm and flashing lights any time an animal crosses a post. The alert lets residents know a potentially dangerous animal is near and that they should stay indoors.
In all, the forest department has installed some 700 of these posts across Valparai. These are meant to be operational from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., when elephants are most active.
The posts have been placed in paths where elephants tend to cross, said Ganesh Ragunathan, an elephant researcher at the NGO Nature Conservation Foundation. Ragunathan works in Valparai but wasn’t involved in setting up the system.
Electricity supply isn’t reliable in Valparai, so using solar energy to power the early-warning system is a smart choice, Ragunathan added.
Some tea estate workers told Subramaniam that the virtual fence makes them feel a bit safer since they’re now aware of the wildlife presence around them. They added that their children also sometimes return home late after school, so the warning system is reassuring.
However, residents say the system isn’t perfect. Elephants have knocked down some warning posts, and some animals don’t react to the alarms or turn away and continue to damage property.
Some posts no longer work, one resident said, adding the forest department hasn’t maintained them. The system also alerts when humans cross the posts, another resident said, making it unclear if there’s truly a risk from wildlife outside.
The Tamil Nadu Forest Department had not responded to Mongabay India’s questions at the time of publishing the video.
Banner image of Asian elephant in a tea plantation by via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
This is a summary of “Can invisible solar fences prevent elephant-human conflicts in Valparai?” produced by Mongabay India and reported by Gowthami Subramaniam.
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