Electric wire fencing to be set up to stop Dalma elephants

The forest department has taken up some measures like installing electric wire fencing to check marauding wild elephants in West Midnapore district of West Bengal.
Electric wire fencings, trenches and watch towers would be set up in several places under Nayagram police station where herds of elephants from Dalma stay for months and destroy crops.
DFO, Kharagpur division, Anjan Guha, said electric fences would be installed at Biribaria and Kalmapukuria under Chadabila forest range.
Low voltage electricity will flow through two stretches of such fence, that will only scare the pachyderms without harming them. Each of the stretch will be 2-km long.

Besides, Guha said, a four-km-long trench would be dug in Panchkahania and two watch towers would be erected at Kalmapukuria and Tapoban.
While trenches would stop the elephants from advancing, watch towers would be used to keep vigil on the herds, particularly those with calves.

Work for these have already started and the measures will be taken up in some more areas later, the DFO said.
At the harvest season, the elephants come down from Dalma hills in Jharkhand and take the route of Belpahari, Lalgarh, and Sankrail where they cross Subarnarekha river to reach Nayagram, Guha said, adding they destroy crops and at times, people get killed by them.

Currently, around 15 elephants are moving around in Nayagram, he said.
After staying at Nayagram, they advance towards areas like Keshiari and Dantan.
Hopefully, the measures will stop the elephants from destroying crops in Nayagram area, the DFO said.