State to invest Rs 50 cr on solar fencing to reduce man-animal conflict

Nagpur: In a major move to curb increasing man-animal conflict, the state government has decided to give impetus to solar fencing to farms by spending Rs 50 crore by March-end. The project is expected to benefit at least 33,000 beneficiaries in Maharashtra’s protected areas in the first phase.
“The state has released Rs 50 crore for the project and over 1,173 villages have been identified in the entire state to implement the project of which a maximum of 341 will be in Chandrapur district,” PCCF (wildlife) Maheep Gupta told TOI.
“Man-animal conflict is the biggest issue with which the forest department has been grappling. Last year we paid over Rs 80 crore towards compensation for cattle and human kills and crop damage. Crop damage alone accounted for over Rs 55 crores,” said Gupta.
The PCCF informed the scheme is a part of Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Jan Van Yojana under which an individual beneficiary will have to bear 25% (Rs 5,000) cost and above of the solar fencing, and 75% (Rs 15,000) whichever is less shall be borne by the forest department.
The scheme will be implemented through the active participation of joint forest management committees (JFMCs) and eco-development committees (EDCs).
The villages around forest areas and the national parks and sanctuaries face the problem of crop raiding by wild animals and causing huge damage to the crop. There have been many instances where farmers flow current to their fences to save crops from herbivores like chital, sambar, nilgai, wild boars, gaur, and elephants but tigers and leopards fall prey to these fences.
In order to reduce this conflict and to protect the crops of the farmers, it is proposed to encourage installing solar fencing around the crop fields by the individuals in such areas.
Taking into account the success of solar fencing, which was implemented on a pilot basis in buffer areas of Navegaon-Nagzira (NNTR) and Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserves (TATR), providing individual solar fencing was included in the scheme for reducing the crop damage in agricultural fields.
The technical specifications of the equipment which include an energizer, battery, solar panel, insulators, alarm system, etc, have been approved by the technical committee and Maharashtra Energy Development Agency (MEDA).
Gupta said, “Open tenders are being called by territorial and wildlife circles as per the request for proposal (RFP) approved by PCCF (HoFF). The tenderer shall be bound to supply, install and maintain the solar fencing equipment to the individual beneficiary in the villages concerned.”
Even as the project is a win-win situation both for wildlife and people, there are several stringent tender conditions that have not augured well with the companies keen on supplying the material.
“The forest department wants high-quality solar fences at a low cost. There is no clarity on several conditions. One of the conditions is that in addition to supplying and installation of solar fencing equipment, the company has to train the individual beneficiary about the operation of the equipment. How is it possible to train individuals,” asked a section of company executives.