Assam: 11 km solar-powered fence along Raimona park installed

In a bid to mitigate human-elephant conflict, an 11-kilometre-long solar-powered fence has been installed along the boundary of Raimona National Park in Assam’s Kokrajhar district.

The fence, installed by Aaranyak, a biodiversity conservation organisation, in collaboration with the forest department, and the local community, will cover 17 villages and 870 households.

The solar-powered fence to protect these villages from elephant attacks has been installed with support from the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), a spokesperson of the organisation said on Monday.

The fence is managed by the community members who have been trained for maintenance and monitoring, he said.

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In the first phase, a 4 km-long electric fence was set up to cover six villages on the fringe of the national park to protect 270 households.

Another 6.55 km-long solar-powered and single-wire fence was installed to protect 600 more households from elephant attacks in 11 villages on the outskirts of the park.

The members of the local community, whose agricultural fields and dwelling places have been protected by the solar fence from wild elephant attacks, played an important role by contributing posts and labourers required for the purpose, the official said.

With the additional 11 km coverage, the total length of the solar-powered fence along the boundary of the park has increased to 17.05 km, he said. Earlier, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) installed a 6.5-km-long fence to protect six fringe villages and 298 households.