Solar fence suffers from ownership issues

Beneficiaries should be enabled to take care of the facility

18 December, 2009 - With farmers in Umling and Tarithang gewogs in Sarpang losing crops and even property to wild animals, especially elephants, the royal Manas national park (RMNP), with assistance from the world wildlife fund (WWF), provided solar fencing not long ago to offset the conflict.

A10.5 km in all solar fencing worth Nu 782,000 was set up along three different stretches. Today, however, the fencing has almost gone to waste. The solar powered fencing, which produces electric current, are defunct. The project was implemented by RMNP against human-wildlife conflict in the park’s buffer area.

The energisers, which locals refer to as batteries, are down, while the wires are damaged. In Rijung, Umling and Tarithang C, several metres of the wires were stolen, according to residents.

According to the Umling gup, Ugyen Norbu, the first 4.46 km solar fencing was set up in 2003 and it really benefited the local residents. “It helped to curb the elephant menace,” he said.

During the insurgency, the fence wires were stolen and damaged and since then it has not been restored, according to the gup. “The park provided us with another fencing at Tashithang in 2007,” the gup said. “That machine got damaged and we’re waiting for the park officials to repair it.”

However, the solar fencing in Tarithang, provided in March 2008, had functioned for only a month, according to Tarithang residents. The Tarithang gup told Kuensel that the solar fence was damaged after the army, on their patrol, disconnected the wires to get their vehicle through. “The machine operator started the machine without checking it, and the circuits got damaged,” he said.

Meanwhile, RMNP is in the process of replacing the solar fences in Tarithang. Wooden posts were replaced by iron ones with concrete support and the park has proposed a budget to replace and repair the one in Rijung.

But observers say that it will be of no use even if it repaired and replaced if no one shoulders the responsibility to take care of the facility. “It’s a wastage of funds,” said an official.

Park officials say that it is the responsibility of the villagers to take care of the fencing as beneficiaries. But locals say that, without any proper training, it is difficult to maintain it.

According to an RMNP official, Sangay Tenzin, for conservation activity to succeed, local support is a must. “They (gewog officials) should have taken action when the earlier one was damaged, but they didn’t do anything,” he said. “For how long will the park go on monitoring it?”

For farmers, the solar fencing is indispensable since they depend on subsistence farming for livelihood and an elephant attack can destroy the whole crop in a single night. “The solar fencing really helped us and park should look into our problem to repair it,” said a resident, Tashi.

By Tashi Dema in Kuensel

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