Express News Service
Lucknow: The menace of stray cattle, which was a main poll plank in 2022 assembly elections, still persists to haunt the farmers in Uttar Pradesh. After making not so successful attempts to address the issue and Lok Sabha elections round the corner, now the Uttar Pradesh government is contemplating to resort to solar-powered fencing around farms to ward off the stray animals. Similarly, with an intent to curb the rising incidents of man-animal conflicts in buffer zones around tiger reserves, the UP forest department is planning to install solar powered fence along the outer boundary of the buffer zone.
The proposed move to fence the agricultural fields is believed to be cost-effective and will have electric fencing passing enough current to keep the stray cattle away from fields with no harm to them, said a senior official. The farmers would be provided with the equipment at subsidised rates.
As per the highly-placed sources, the state government is planning to provide about 50 per cent funding for cluster-based fencing, while the rest will be borne by farmers. The proposal seems to be helpful in saving the standing crops from the stray cattle as other tools including barbed and electric wires are banned since incidents of injury to animals were reported.
The solar powered fencing will have mild power of 10-12 watt. “With the ban on other alternatives, solar-charged fencing in other states like Rajasthan has been implemented successfully. In Uttar Pradesh, the option of community fencing or cluster-based fencing, is under consideration. This will require the farmers to come together to instal solar-charged fencing,” said Additional Chief Secretary (Agriculture) Devesh Chaturvedi. It is mainly the fruit, vegetable and pulse crops that are destroyed by the stray animals and therefore the idea is to ensure that a group of farmers come together to create larger clusters to reduce the fencing cost, another department official said.
On the other, to use the same strategy to keep the wild animals away from straying into villages bordering the buffer zone of tiger reserves, trials will begin by fencing the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR) buffer zone. “Spots that have reported a number of incidents of man-animal conflict are being identified with the help of locals. These places shall be fenced first, and a review of the effort will be done in coming months,” said a senior forest department official.
As per the forest officials, the solar fence of appropriate height will deliver a ‘very light shock’ to the animal trying to cross over thus keeping them away from entering the human fiefdom.
The fencing will first be done at spots, where cases of wild animals attacking man and livestock are common. After DTR in Pilibhit, the next fencing will take place at Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS), Bahraich.
Lucknow: The menace of stray cattle, which was a main poll plank in 2022 assembly elections, still persists to haunt the farmers in Uttar Pradesh. After making not so successful attempts to address the issue and Lok Sabha elections round the corner, now the Uttar Pradesh government is contemplating to resort to solar-powered fencing around farms to ward off the stray animals. Similarly, with an intent to curb the rising incidents of man-animal conflicts in buffer zones around tiger reserves, the UP forest department is planning to install solar powered fence along the outer boundary of the buffer zone.
The proposed move to fence the agricultural fields is believed to be cost-effective and will have electric fencing passing enough current to keep the stray cattle away from fields with no harm to them, said a senior official. The farmers would be provided with the equipment at subsidised rates.
As per the highly-placed sources, the state government is planning to provide about 50 per cent funding for cluster-based fencing, while the rest will be borne by farmers. The proposal seems to be helpful in saving the standing crops from the stray cattle as other tools including barbed and electric wires are banned since incidents of injury to animals were reported.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
The solar powered fencing will have mild power of 10-12 watt. “With the ban on other alternatives, solar-charged fencing in other states like Rajasthan has been implemented successfully. In Uttar Pradesh, the option of community fencing or cluster-based fencing, is under consideration. This will require the farmers to come together to instal solar-charged fencing,” said Additional Chief Secretary (Agriculture) Devesh Chaturvedi. It is mainly the fruit, vegetable and pulse crops that are destroyed by the stray animals and therefore the idea is to ensure that a group of farmers come together to create larger clusters to reduce the fencing cost, another department official said.
On the other, to use the same strategy to keep the wild animals away from straying into villages bordering the buffer zone of tiger reserves, trials will begin by fencing the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR) buffer zone. “Spots that have reported a number of incidents of man-animal conflict are being identified with the help of locals. These places shall be fenced first, and a review of the effort will be done in coming months,” said a senior forest department official.
As per the forest officials, the solar fence of appropriate height will deliver a ‘very light shock’ to the animal trying to cross over thus keeping them away from entering the human fiefdom.
The fencing will first be done at spots, where cases of wild animals attacking man and livestock are common. After DTR in Pilibhit, the next fencing will take place at Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS), Bahraich.
